New evidence shows that patients with Long COVID syndrome continue to have higher measures of blood clotting, which may help explain their persistent symptoms, such as reduced physical fitness and fatigue.
The study, led by researchers from RCSI University of
Medicine and Health Sciences, is published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
Previous work by the same group studied the dangerous
clotting observed in patients with severe acute COVID-19. However, far 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.
The researchers examined 50 patients with symptoms of
Long COVID syndrome to better understand if abnormal blood clotting is
involved.
They discovered that clotting markers were
significantly elevated in the blood of patients with Long COVID syndrome
compared with healthy controls. These clotting markers were higher in patients
who required hospitalisation 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.
The researchers observed that 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.
This work was funded by the Welcome Trust, the Health
Research Board (HRB) Irish Clinical Academic Training (ICAT) programme as well
as the HRB-funded Irish COVID-19 Vasculopathy Study (ICVS). The work was also
supported by a philanthropic grant from the 3M Foundation to RCSI University of
Medicine and Health Sciences in support of COVID-19 research.
“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.”
Journal article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jth.15490
Image credit: nejm.org
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