Anticoagulants may increase survival rates in cases of coronavirus and reduce the need for intubation, according to a study released Wednesday.
Patients on a therapeutic dose of anticoagulants, such as blood thinners, defined as a full dose, by the study authors, and those on a prophylactic, or lower, dose of blood thinner medication had a reduced risk of deaths by 50% in patients infected with new coronavirus and reduced intubation need by 30%, according to the observational study by a team of Mount Sinai researchers in New York published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“Clearly, anticoagulation is associated with improved outcomes and bleeding rates appear to be low,” said corresponding author Dr. Anu Lala, an assistant professor of medicine and the director of cardiac research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said in a statement. As a clinician who has treated COVID-19 patients on the front lines, I recognize the importance of having answers about what the best treatment for these patients entails, and these results will inform the design of clinical trials to ultimately provide concrete information. to give. ”
The study was developed after it was discovered that many patients infected with coronavirus developed blood problems, according to the researchers. The research team examined the survival and death rates for patients placed on therapeutic and prophylactic doses of blood thinners, including oral antithrombotics, subcutaneous heparin and intravenous heparin compared to those not taking anticoagulant medications, according to the researchers.
The researchers analyzed 4,389 medical records of confirmed patients with new coronavirus in the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City between March 1 and April 30, 2020.
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Six different blood thinner treatments were evaluated within the therapeutic group (full dose) and prophylactic (low dose) groups. The subcutaneous low molecular weight heparin and therapeutic oral drug apixaban were found to have the most positive results compared to the other drugs. The researchers took into account several factors with a risk score to estimate the risk of death.
Patients on both a therapeutic dose of blood thinners (defined as a full dose, by the authors of the study) and those on a prophylactic (lower) dose of blood thinner medication had a reduced risk of death by 50 percent in patients who were infected with novel coronavirus and reduced intubation need by 30 percent.
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The authors of the study found a strong link between blood thinners and reduced risk of death in hospital among the patients who received the full dose and prophylactic doses of anticoagulants by almost 50 percent compared to those who did not take blood thinners . Covid-19 patients on full-dose and low-dose therapeutic blood thinners also had fewer intubations compared with the non-prescribed blood-thinner group, by 31% and 28%, respectively.
The researchers also saw bleeding rates, as this is a risk associated with taking anticoagulants, and found them “surprisingly low with all patients”, with it occurring in up to 3% of cases, according to the researchers.
The team of investigators discovered at autopsy of COVID-19 patients that 11 of 26 patients had blood clots that were not suspected when they were in the clinical setting. They concluded that these findings show treatment with blood thinners may be beneficial in COVID-19 patients to prevent blood problems.
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Senior matching author Dr. Valentin Fuster told Fox News in an interview that this observational study laid the groundwork for a larger global clinical trial coordinated by the research team.
The clinical trial will “focus on the three antithrombotic regimens: low molecular weight therapeutic and prophylactic subcutaneous heparin, and therapeutic oral apixaban,” Fuster, also the director of Mount Sinai Heart and chief physician at Mount Sinai Hospital, said in a statement included with the release.
