A possible link between blood clots and Covid’s continuing symptoms has been monitored by UK researchers.
While Covid can cause a period of acute illness, it can also cause long-term problems. Studies show that less than a third of patients who have continued symptoms of Covid after being hospitalized with the disease feel fully recovered a year later.
Researchers now need to begin a series of studies to see if blood thinners can help those who have had the disease.
Professor Ami Banerjee of University College London, who is leading a study called Stimulate-ICP, said it was known that Covid infection increased the risk of blood clots and that people who had the disease had a higher risk of related conditions. , including stroke, heart attack and deep vein thrombosis.
Banerjee also said that research by South African scientists suggested that people with long Covid had microclots in their blood, while studies in the United Kingdom suggested that almost a third of long-term patients with Covid had clotting abnormalities.
But he said it was unclear whether the findings could be summarized, and although there had been calls on social media for anticoagulants based on such findings, further research was needed, not least because blood thinners could lead to to an increased risk of bleeding.
The question was repeated by Prof. Betty Raman of Oxford University, who warned that research on microcoagulants and long-term Covid has not yet been conducted on a large scale, microcoagulation is difficult to screen and it is not yet clear whether coagulation abnormalities are really the cause. continuing symptoms of Covid.
“There needs to be more dedicated research looking at the effectiveness of anticoagulants [for long Covid]just like we did with [treatments for] patients with acute malaise, “Raman said.
The Stimulate-ICP study, which is set to begin within days, will divide 4,500 people with long-term Covid into four groups, in which participants receive routine care, antihistamines, anti-inflammatory or anticoagulant medicine for three months. “This will allow us to say whether this improves fatigue and other outcomes in people with long-term Covid,” Banerjee said.
While the study focused on people who had Covid in the community, another study called Heal-Covid included people who were hospitalized with the disease in order to identify treatments that could help prevent or reduce persistent symptoms. .
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“Heal-Covid is not a study to treat people with long-term Covid, we are working to prevent things from happening so far,” said Professor Charlotte Summers of the University of Cambridge, who is the study’s lead researcher.
The team recruited 1,118 participants, with one part of the study involving participants receiving blood thinners. “The study included anticoagulants because it was thought that there was an increased number of large blood clots occurring in the post-hospital phase of the disease, not microclots,” Summers said.
The post-hospitalization Covid-19 study – or Phos-Covid – that provided key insights into long-term Covid also examines the issue of clotting.
Chris Brightling, a professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Leicester and lead researcher of the study, said one area the team is looking at is whether people with persistent symptoms after hospitalization have chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. If this is found, he said, it would be strong evidence that microcoagulation is a serious problem.
“While if we don’t see this, it doesn’t rule out the possibility, obviously – that some people will get clots – but that would make it less likely that this is essentially a major problem,” he said.
Banerjee said that while it is understandable that some patients with persistent Covid symptoms may be disappointed that some therapies are not yet available, rigorous studies are essential. “We need to make sure we don’t [lower] safety bar, “he said.
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