What Is Behind Long COVID? It Could Start with Blood Clotting Issues
Written by George Citroner on August 19, 2021 — Fact checked by Dana K. Cassell
New research finds a significant association between signs of blood clotting and symptoms of long COVID. Morsa Images/Getty Images
A new study finds that long-haul COVID-19, commonly referred to as “long COVID,” may be related to blood clotting issues.
In the study, 50 people were reviewed for an average of 68 days after developing COVID-19.
They found people with higher blood clotting markers were more likely to have long COVID symptoms.
While most people with COVID-19 get better within weeks, some people experience post-COVID-19 conditions that are commonly dubbed “long COVID” or long-haul COVID-19.
Post-COVID-19 conditions are a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems that may be experienced 4 or more weeks after getting COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source.
Researchers still aren’t sure what causes these long-term symptoms.
Now, new research finds that people with long COVID show higher measures of blood clotting, which could help explain persistent symptoms, including reduced physical fitness and fatigue.
The Study Trusted Source, led by researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dublin, was published this month in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
Signs of blood clotting found in all patients
For the study, 50 people were reviewed for an average of 68 days after developing COVID-19 to better understand the role blood clotting might play in long-hauler symptoms.
Their findings indicated that signs of clotting, called clotting markers, were significantly elevated in the blood of people with long COVID symptoms, compared with healthy people in a control group.
Although clotting markers were significantly higher in those hospitalized due to their initial illness, researchers found that even patients who remained at home had high clotting markers.
It’s still too early to know what the correlation is between blood clotting and long COVID, or what the causes and effects of these higher clotting factors are, according to Dr. Teresa Murray Amato, the director of emergency medicine at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills New York.
“However, it is important to try and make these connections,” she said, “to better understand how to counsel patients who are suffering long after their initial COVID infection.”
Long COVID changing with new variants
Long COVID is a still poorly defined syndrome that occurs after the acute viral infection due to COVID has passed, said Dr. Thomas Gut, the associate chair of medicine and director of the Post-COVID Recovery Center at Staten Island University Hospital in New York.
“Predominantly it is categorized by persistent cognitive changes and fatigue symptoms, but newer strains have shown newer symptoms that have not been seen earlier in the pandemic,” he continued.
Gut emphasized that the most effective option available to prevent, and possibly treat, long-haul COVID-19 is the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Not only does vaccination reduce the risk of severe infection,” he said. “But it also has potential to help reduce the risk of contracting COVID in the first place.”
Source:
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/what-is-behind-long-covid-it-could-start-with-blood-clotting-issues#Long-COVID-changing-with-new-variants
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