Systemic thromboemboli in patients with Covid-19 may result from paradoxical embolization

There is increasing evidence that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection causes an unusual pneumonia and a pro-coagulant state that significantly increases the risk of arterial and venous thromboembolism. We hypothesize that, in select patients, some complications of COVID-19 may be due to right-to-left (RTL) shunt. Shunt may be intra-pulmonary, or extra-pulmonary, and can cause paradoxical embolization, hypoxia and platypnoea orthodeoxia. Saline microbubble contrast echocardiography is a minimally invasive, inexpensive, bedside test that can detect, quantify, and define the anatomical substrate of intra-pulmonary and intra-cardiac shunts.

Source: Thrombosis Research - August 30, 2020 Category: Hematology Authors: Rajkumar Rajendram, Ghulam Abbas Kharal, Naveed Mahmood, Mubashar Kharal Tags: Letter to the Editors-in-Chief Source Type: research