COVID-19 Trigger: Indian Researchers Report First Case of Rare Blood Clot Recurrence in Patient’s Arms

A group of US researchers led by an Indian American scientist recently reported the first case of COVID-19 trigger, specifically, a rare recurrence of possibly severed blood clots in a patient's arms.

This discovery, The Siasat Daily reported, published in the Viruses journal, enhances the insight of how inflammation caused by COVID-19 can result in upper extremity blood clots, not to mention how best to treat such conditions.

While there have been previous reports of lower extremity deep vein thrombosis after infection from COVID-19, this is the first research in which the disease initiated a recurrence in an active 85-year-old man's upper arm.

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Upper Arm Blood Clot

According to Ruggers Robert Wood Johnsons Medical School assistant professor of medicine, Payal Parikh, who led the study, the patient presented to his primary care physician, complaining about swelling of his left arm.

He was then sent to the hospital for further checking and supervision, where he was diagnosed with an upper arm blood clot and was found to have an asymptomatic COVID-19 infection.

While the patient's oxygen levels were not reduced, he was admitted to the hospital to manage his upper extremity deep vein blood clot.

Frequently, Parikh co-led the study with Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine director Martin Blaser said, blood clots are preceded by chronic inflammatory occurrences aggravated by immobility.

More so, he added, rarely do such blood clots occur in patients who are otherwise healthy, not to mention "active at baseline."

Usual Deep Vein Thrombosis Occurrences

A similar The Statesman report specified that most occurrences of deep vein thrombosis take place in the legs. Only approximately 10 percent of blood clots take place in the arms, and of such cases, only nine percent are recurring.

This, Parikh said, is of concern since, in 30 percent of these COVID-19 patients, the blood clot can go to the lung and be possibly deadly. Other incapacitating complications comprise persistent swelling, arm fatigue, and pain.

This research suggests that clinicians need to consider testing for deep vein thrombosis and COVID-19 infection in patients who report to them and complain of unexplained swelling.

Furthermore, individuals testing positive need to seek medical attention if they have decreasing oxygen levels, experiencing shortness of breath, and any unexplained swelling.

Link Between COVID-19 and Blood Clots

In September 2020, the Harvard Medical School reported that patients admitted to the hospital due to COVID-19 infections and high blood-clotting protein levels called "factor V" are at increased risk for severe injury from blood clots like deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism.

However, according to the research by Harvard Medical School Investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital, critically-ill COVID-19 patients and people with low factor V levels seem to be at increased risk for fatality from a form of coagulopathy that's resembling disseminated intravascular coagulation or DIC. DIC is a devastating, frequently deadly abnormality in which blood clots form in small vessels in the entire body, resulting in exhaustion of clotting factors and proteins that regulate coagulation.

The researchers' findings, based on investigations of patients who had COVID-19 in Mass General intensive care units or ICUs, point to the interruptions in factor V activity as both a possible cause of blood clotting disorders with the said virus and possible approaches for determining at-risk COVID-19 patients to choose the right anticoagulation therapy.

Findings of the study, Marked factor V activity elevation in severe COVID‐19 is associated with venous thromboembolism, were published in August 2020, in the American Journal of Hematology.

The related report is shown on the CNA's YouTube video below: