Association of Clinical and Laboratory Findings in COVID-19 Patients with Thromboembolic Complications

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 is associated with dangerous thromboembolic complications, such as stroke, heart attack, pulmonary em-bolism, and arterial and venous thromboembolism (VTE). Early diagnosis and even prediction of thromboembolic complications using biomarkers could facilitate the treatment and decrease the mortality rate. Objectives: This study evaluated and compared the clinical and laboratory findings of COVID-19 patients with thrombotic events with other COVID-19 patients. Methods: A total of 114 confirmed COVID-19 patients referred to Taleghani Hospital, Tehran, Iran, between February and September 2020 were included in this cross-sectional study. Those with a history of thromboembolic disease were excluded. The laboratory data, including the levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), D-dimer, C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and counts of lymphocyte and neutrophil, along with clinical findings (such as oxygen saturation and lung involvement percent-age), were retrospectively collected from the patients’ clinical files. The incidence of thrombotic events was evaluated in patients. Results: The prevalence of thrombosis in the right and left main pulmonary arteries, right and left sub-segmental pulmonary ar-teries, and right and left deep veins was 2.7%, 3.5%, 7%, 7.9%, 4.4%, and 1.8% of all patients, respectively. The results showed that throm-boembolic complications were significantly associated with mortality (P < 0.001). Besides, it was found that LDH (P < 0.001) and neutrophil (P = 0.002) levels in thromboembolic COVID-19 patients were respectively higher and lower than those without throm-boembolic manifestations. Conclusions: High LDH and neutropenia might serve as biomarkers for thromboembolism in COVID-19 patients.