Thromboelastography profile of patients with covid-19 admitted to intensive care unit: A single-center retrospective study from india

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) causes thromboinflammation resulting in a high incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) events, which occur in significant numbers despite giving standard thromboprophylaxis with low-molecular weight heparins. Various markers and tests have been evaluated and found to have a strong association with the worse prognosis of the disease. Common coagulation markers like D-dimer and fibrinogen give more of a static picture of coagulation, whereas viscoelastic tests like thromboelastography (TEG) provide an understanding of the coagulation function and help in better interpretation. We conducted a retrospective analysis of TEG values of 32 patients with COVID-19 admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Hypercoagulation as defined by TEG-coagulation index (CI) higher than the upper limit of the normal reference range (NRR) is found in 62.5% of the patients. There is also a clear representation of hypercoagulability as reflected by TEG-R, TEG-K, and TEG-LY30 values lower than or toward the lower limit of NRR, and TEG-ANGLE, TEG-MA, and TEG-CI values higher than or toward the upper limit of NRR which is more pronounced in severe forms of the disease, both in comparison to NRRs and other non-COVID ICU patients. Findings are similar to that of earlier studies in patients with COVID-19 except for the LY30, which is retained in the majority of our patients. Thromboelastography can be a useful tool to understand and screen for COVID-19-related hypercoagulability and may help predict VTE events. The potential of TEG to determine the optimal anticoagulant therapy needs to be evaluated in larger prospective studies.