Is Undected Inherited Thrombophilia The Hades Of COVID-19?

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Thrombophilia is a co-morbidity in the general population with a prevalence of 5%. However, it is not known whether it affects severity of COVID-19. It may be possible that undiagnosed thrombophilia exaggerates an already prothrombotic state in COVID- 19 patients and hence, results in severe disease. Aims & Objectives: To study the association of underlying thrombophilia with severity of COVID-19 in post COVID patients after a minimum of 6 weeks of recovery. Material(s) and Method(s) Eighty RT-PCR confirmed adult covid patients (40 severe,40 non-severe) post 6 weeks of recovery were included. The venous blood in EDTA and citrate vials was tested for complete blood counts and coagulation parameters such as Prothrombin time, activated partial prothrombin time, Lupus anticoagulant by dRVVT, Antithrombin-III, Protein C and S). Result(s) 6/40 patients had Protein C deficiency in severe category and none in non severe. 7/40 patients had Protein S deficiency in severe category and 1 patient was deficiant in non-severe group. Conclusion(s) Thrombophilia was detected significantly in patients with severe COVID even after 6 weeks of recovery, indicating that undetected underlying thrombophilia could be a factor affecting disease severity. The common abnormalities detected were Protein C & S deficiency. This is a novel finding which needs to be explored further with extensive thrombophilia profiles. The influence of underlying thrombophilia in patients who succumbed to the disease is not known and cannot be known retrospectively. However, the extrapolation of this study suggests that thrombophilia may be an important influence on severity and mortality. (Table Presented).