HYDERABAD: A sudden, shocking rise in cases of mesenteric ischemia or intestinal gangrene has raised concerns among surgical gastroenterologists of a possible link of the condition with COVID-19.
The concerns arose after NIMS Hospital, Punjagutta reported a whopping six cases of the said condition in the past four days, of which two patients passed away soon after diagnosis. The development is shocking as during non-pandemic years, not more than two-three cases are seen.
"When we had six patients in the last four days, we were surprised and decided to test the COVID-19 history of the patients. All six had no known COVID-19 exposure but had high Covid-19 antibody levels. This implies that they were COVID-19 positive at some point and were asymptomatic, which is why they all had high levels of antibodies," said Dr N Bheerappa, Professor and HOD, NIMS Hospital.
This connection of all patients with COVID-19 is a strong indicator to why they all may have got intestinal gangrene, especially because the virus has been shown to produce blood clots or thrombosis as a post-COVID-19 syndrome.
"We want to inform the public that if they have had no exposure to COVID-19, but suffer from a few symptoms like black stools, abdominal pain or vomiting, they must immediately visit the doctor as it could be indicative of a clot in the intestine and an internal bleeding," said Dr Bheerappa.
NIMS to take up extensive study on mesenteric ischemia
All these six patients, both male and female, had no comorbidities and were in the 40-50 age group. Two of the six had received one dose of the vaccine. Mesenteric ischemia usually tends to affect those with very severe comorbid conditions, along with a vitamin C deficiency, and those with blood clotting issues.
As a result of such a sporadic rise in the condition, the team at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) has now decided to conduct an extensive study on the same.
Meanwhile, speaking about the said issue, Dr Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman, AIG Hospital, stated that usually such thrombosis is seen in moderate to severe cases of COVID-19. "Immediately after the second wave of COVID-19, we saw many more cases, however, now it is declining. It is suggested that anticoagulant medicines be used in such cases," he added.
201 cases of COVID reported in Telangana, one death
HYDERABAD: Telangana recorded 201 cases of Covid and one death on Saturday. With this, Telangana's active cases are at 4,541. The same day saw 258 individuals reporting recovery. Meanwhile, the highest cases came in from Greater Hyderbad limits with 68 cases, followed by 23 in Karimnagar and 13 in Rangareddy district