Covid

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One of the many dangers of COVID-19 is its ability to possibly cause blood clots. The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is indeed constantly making surprises and keeps many mysteries. Blood clots caused by this virus can then cause serious problems such as heart attacks and strokes.

The condition of this blood clot was reported by Jeffrey Laurence and his fellow hematologists at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, United States. "Some of the clotting problems we see in the ICU in COVID-19 patients are unprecedented," said Laurence.

Many COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU (intensive care unit) experience blood clots, including clots in small blood vessels, blood clots in veins in the legs, and clots that cause strokes in the cerebral arteries.

Some have also reported that patients in their 30s and 40s experienced strokes after being infected with COVID-19. After being examined, this stroke was caused by a blood clot that broke off and spread to a blood vessel in the brain.

Blood clots caused by COVID-19 are said to have not responded well to standard prevention methods. In some cases, not only did it not work with standard treatment, even standard doses of blood thinners had no effect.

A recent study from the Netherlands, published in the journal Thrombosis Research , found that more than 30% of the 184 COVID-19 patients in the ICU had some type of blood clotting problem.

Initially, COVID-19 was only associated with respiratory disease, so doctors predicted that the most serious effects would be in the lungs, not the blood. But these latest findings have made experts find out what causes the connection between COVID-19 and this mysterious blood clot.

Causes of mysterious blood clots in COVID-19 patients

A new study explains that COVID-19 appears to promote the production of special antibodies that are known to attack a person's body tissues and trigger blood clots. Such antibodies are called autoimmune antibodies or autoantibodies. One of the so-called types antiphospholipid autoantibodies capable of attacking cells in such a way as to increase blood clotting.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, autoantibodies like this were seen in patients who had an autoimmune disorder known as anti-phospholipid syndrome or anti-phospholipid syndrome (APS). This disease is an autoimmune disorder that makes blood clot and clot easily.

"We now know that autoantibodies are the cause of complications in COVID-19," said study co-author Yogendra Kanthi, assistant professor at Michigan Medicine Frankel Cardiovascular Center.

These autoantibodies likely play a role in the vicious cycle of blood clots and inflammation that makes COVID-19 symptoms worse.

Jeffrey Laurence said that the lungs of COVID-19 patients who died from respiratory failure, especially those who had not been assisted by a ventilator, often did not show the damage that generally occurs in people who die from other acute respiratory disorders. In fact, his scar tissue has a blood clot in a small vessel. According to him, this fact suggests that freezing is at least contributing to respiratory failure.

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Clot-causing antibodies

In a study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine Researchers detected these autoantibodies in half of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Researchers conducted an analysis on blood samples of 172 COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized. Overall, 52% of these patients had anti-phospholipid autoantibodies in their blood.

When researchers injected these autoantibodies into mice, researchers said the number of blood clots that occurred was striking. "One of the worst blood clots we've ever seen," said Yogendra Kanthi.

In both COVID-19 patients and in APS patients, it is not clear why the body produces antibodies that cause these blood clots. According to National Institutes of Health , at APS, scientists think the disease is caused by a combination of a person's genetics and environmental exposure including certain viruses.

Researchers say more research is needed to better understand the role of these autoantibodies in COVID-19 and what triggers their production. Researchers suggest giving anti-clotting drugs to patients with severe COVID-19 to reduce the risk of life-threatening blood clots.

From this fact the researchers are also again wondering about the possible dangers posed by using the patient's blood plasma to recover. The blood plasma of a recovered patient may contain dangerous autoantobodies in addition to antibodies that can help fight COVID-19. So that people who get a transfusion can get the dangers.

Research is still ongoing to see how long autoantibodies last after people recover from COVID-19.