Blood Clotting To be the Reason for Prolonged COVID Syndrome

Patients with Long COVID syndrome should take more measures to reduce the risk of blood clotting. Blood clots may cause reduced physical fitness and fatigue.

Patients with prolonged-19 continue to have higher measures of blood clotting, which may help explain their persistent symptoms, as per the study, led by researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Hemostasis.

Much less is known about Long COVID syndrome, where symptoms can last weeks to months after the initial infection has resolved and is estimated to affect millions of people worldwide.

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‘Higher clotting was related to reduced physical fitness and fatigue. Even after getting normal markers of inflammation, increased clotting potential was seen in Long COVID patients. ’
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The study included 50 patients with symptoms of Long COVID syndrome to better understand if abnormal blood clotting is involved.

Clotting markers were elevated in the blood of patients with Long COVID syndrome compared with healthy controls. These were higher in patients who required hospitalization with their initial COVID-19 infection, but they also found that even those who were able to manage their illness at home still had persistently high clotting markers.

Higher clotting was directly related to other symptoms of Long COVID syndrome, such as reduced physical fitness and fatigue. Even though markers of inflammation had all returned to normal levels, this increased clotting potential was still present in Long COVID patients.

“Because clotting markers were elevated while inflammation markers had returned to normal, our results suggest that the clotting system may be involved in the root cause of Long COVID syndrome,” said Dr Helen Fogarty, the study’s lead author, ICAT Fellow and PhD student at the Irish Centre for Vascular Biology in the RCSI School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences.

“Understanding the root cause of a disease is the first step toward developing effective treatments,” said Professor James O’Donnell, Director of the Irish Centre for Vascular Biology, RCSI and Consultant Haematologist in the National Coagulation Centre in St James's Hospital, Dublin.

“Millions of people are already dealing with the symptoms of Long COVID syndrome, and more people will develop Long COVID as the infections among the unvaccinated continue to occur. It is imperative that we continue to study this condition and develop effective treatments.”

Source-Medindia