Clinical Characteristics of Venous Thromboembolism in COVID-19 Patients Admitted to intensive care unit (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Introduction: COVID-19 infection was associated with many morbid conditions, one of which is venous thromboembolism; however, this is varied in incidence and clinical characteristics, with no known definite risk predictors. Aim: To identify the incidence, clinical characteristics, and risks and outcome of venous thromboembolism in COVID-19 patients. Methods: a retrospective cohort study comparing the recorded data for two groups of patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection and admitted to the ICU in 6 months duration. Results: the incidence of venous thromboembolism was 30%, where pulmonary embolism (PE) alone was the most frequent type (68.2%), followed by, DVT with PE (15.1%), DVT alone (12.1%), cavernous sinus thrombosis alone CST (3%) and the least frequency was CST with renal artery thrombi (1.5%). Smoking and malignancy were more frequent in VTE group with more statistically significant elevation of D dimer. the pulmonary embolism was lobar in the majority of our patients (69.6%), followed by segmental (17.9%), while the least frequency was for massive pulmonary embolism (12.5%). Conclusion: VTE is a common event in COVID-19 patients, where smoking and malignancy more frequent, D dimer is significantly elevated, and more morbidity and mortality in those patients.