Even mild COVID infection increases risk of blood clots and death
A study in the UK found that mild (non-hospitalized) infections led to a 2.7x higher risk of blood clots and 10.2x higher risk of death compared to controls ( https://heart.bmj.com/node/174901.full ). H/T: @lauramiers@Twitter.com 🧵 1/
The study looked at 17,871 COVID-19 cases in the UK between March 2020 and March 2021. People hospitalized *for* COVID-19 were at even higher risk:
118.0x = All-cause Death
27.6 = Venous Thromboembolism (blood clots)
21.6x = Heart Failure
17.5x = Stroke
14.9x = Atrial Fibrillation (AF)
13.6x = Pericarditis
9.9x = Myocardial Infarction (heart attack)
2/
The authors stated, "The associated risks were greatest in the first 30 days after infection but remained higher than controls even after this period."
It is important to note that the majority of the study was conducted *before* the COVID-19 vaccines were approved and being given in the UK. 3/
@greg_travis@Twitter.com took data from the CDC and plotted the deaths per months in males aged 25-54 from cardiovascular or respiratory disease and found a 39% increase in deaths/month since the start of the pandemic even in this younger age group ( https://twitter.com/greg_travis/status/1602337780125908995 ). 4/
Dr. Rae Duncan discusses how COVID infection causes endothelial damage (inner lining of blood vessels) happening directly from the virus infection itself and also from the immune response that is generated (cytokines) ( https://twitter.com/jeffgilchrist/status/1586321257091698688 ). 5/
Dr. Claire Taylor explains more about which tests are needed to detect these microclots as the more common D-Dimer and CTPA tests will frequently come back "normal" but can find them using a VQ scan ( https://twitter.com/jeffgilchrist/status/1586043185901760512 ). 6/
Dr. Rae Duncan provides a real world example from the cardiovascular clinic she started where all the Long COVID patients they treated had microclots and platelet activation ( https://twitter.com/jeffgilchrist/status/1586043132134576128 ). 7/
@jeffgilchrist
But my best friend's ex-roommate from college once dated a girl who lived next door to a medical lab tech, and he said COVID was just like the flu.
