by Katherine Kozlowski (Medical Writer for www.VeinsVeinsVeins.com)
Our colleague, Naomi Schwaitz receently reported on a study done by Karaali and colleagues in Turkey who compared the number of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) cases during the quarantine period for COVID-19 to that of the year past (2019).
These researchers reported that despite the decrease in the total number of patients admitted to the hospital, there was a significant increase in the number of DVT patients.
What remains unknown is what the incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is in critically ill COVID-19 patients who receive thrombosis prophylaxis.
Chen S and colleagues performed a retrospective study in the ICU who were critically ill with COVID-19 at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, China. All patients had compression ultrasonography for identifying DVT. Firth logistic regression was used to examine the association of DVT with sex, age, hypoalbuminemia, D-dimer levels and SOFA score.
The researchers found a high incidence of DVT in critically ill patients who were infecteed with COVID-19, despite the use of guideline-recommended pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis. The presence of hypoalbuminemia, higher SOFA score, and elevated D-dimer were independent risk factors for DVT.
Chen S, Zhang D, Zheng T, Yu Y, Jiang J. DVT incidence and risk factors in critically-ill patients with Covid-19. J Thromb Thrombolysis 2020; 30: 1-7.