Hospitalized COVID-19 patients face an increased risk of developing dangerous blood clots, a new review indicates.
The odds of a clot are highest for the most critically ill patients. Analysis of 66 studies found that 23% of COVID-19 patients in an intensive care unit developed a blood clot in the leg, known as a deep vein thrombosis, or DVT.
Overall prevalence of a DVT was 14% among ICU and non-ICU COVID-19 patients, and 8% among those with mild-to-moderate disease risk who were not admitted to the ICU.
The “numbers are surprisingly high when compared with other hospitalized patients,” said study author Dr. Cihan Ay.
Of great concern are blood clots in the legs that can break away and travel to the lungs. This is a life-threatening condition known as pulmonary embolism, or PE.
Nearly 4% of patients not admitted to the ICU developed a pulmonary embolism. And “we found a very high PE risk of 14% in patients treated at an intensive care unit,” said Ay, an associate professor in hematology and hemostaseology at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria.
According to the American Heart Association, DVT and PE are each a form of venous thromboembolism, or VTE, as both refer to a blood clot that originates in a vein.
VTE is estimated to affect between 300,000 and 600,000 Americans every year, the AHA notes. It is most frequently triggered by surgery, cancer, hospitalization or long-term immobilization.
To examine VTE risk related to COVID-19, Ay and his colleagues analyzed the findings of 66 studies, involving roughly 28,000 COVID-19 patients.
On average, the COVID-19 patients were about 63 years old, and six in 10 were men. About one-fifth had been admitted to an ICU.
