BENGALURU: A possible clinical manifestation of Covid is that it can lead to blood clots in some people. Normally, blood clots help stop bleeding when you’re injured. When a blood vessel is injured, it produces some chemical mediators (proteins) that attract platelets and other blood clotting factors.
These clump together to form a clot that plugs the injury and allows it to heal, stopping further bleeding. This is the natural protective physiological response of the body to stop bleeding from minor injuries.
However, sometimes blood clots form in the absence of an injury.
This is potentially dangerous because the clot can restrict the flow of blood within blood vessels, leading to ischaemic damage and which can lead to complications like stroke, heart attack and pulmonary embolism.
Blood clot in the venous system can occur in 9 per cent to 26 per cent of hospitalised Covid patients and in 21 per cent to 31 per cent of coronavirus patients in critical care settings, despite the administration of preventive therapies.
People undergoing any surgical procedure are already at higher risk than the general public. There is only one preventive aspect that can be taken to prevent this and that is to give medications (anticoagulants) which prevent the blood clotting as a prophylactic approach.
This needs to begin as soon as the Covid infected patient is admitted with a moderate to severe category of the illness. Increased vigilance and diagnostic testing is needed in patients presenting with signs of blood clot like swelling in one calf, right-sided chest pain and shortness of breaths.
(The writer is consultant, critical care medicine, Narayana Health City)