#BLOT CLOT IN LUNG SKIN#

Within days, we saw similar skin changes in other patients caused by clotting, and then demonstrated the same thing in small blood vessels of the lungs of critical COVID-19 patients. A skin biopsy showed that the rash was a consequence of many clots in the small blood vessels of the patient’s skin. We first became aware of the prominence of the clotting problem when a patient was admitted to the ICU and developed an unusual rash. In many cases, an ICU patient will be hooked to a respirator and/or kidney dialysis machine, and while you can use bedside ultrasounds to look for clots in the arms and legs you can’t easily put them in a scanner to look for clots in the lungs. We don’t really know with precision-it depends on the severity of the COVID-19 case, and on how strongly you look for clotting. In what percent of severe COVID-19 cases does clotting occur? This COVID-19-related clotting often does not respond well to standard prevention methods and, in some cases, to standard treatments, even with high doses of blood thinners. This has been happening even though these patients, in accordance with standard intensive care practice, are put on blood thinner drugs such as heparin to prevent clots as soon as they come to the ICU. Many COVID-19 patients in the ICU are developing blood clots, including clots in small vessels, deep vein thromboses in the legs, clots in the lungs, and stroke-causing clots in cerebral arteries. What is the clotting problem that you and other doctors are seeing in severe COVID-19 cases?

You can also read more about this issue and the latest developments here. He answered questions about the phenomenon and how he and his Weill Cornell Medicine colleagues are continuing to study treatments for blood clotting in these cases. Jeffrey Laurence, a professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and a hematology and oncology specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and his colleagues authored a paper in Translational Research in early April that sounded the alarm about abnormal blood clotting-which prevents blood flow-in severe COVID-19 cases.

Blot clot in lung