COVID-19 associated thromboembolism: Causing the respiratory failure

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has recently emerged in China and caused a global pandemic. WHO announced that COVID-19 could be charac-terised as a pandemic due to unprecedented swift global spread and severity of the outbreak. When infected with the virus, patients usually have a fever, dry cough, dyspnoea, myalgia, headache and sometimes diarrhoea. Updates on molecular characteristics of SARS-CoV-2, treatment and epidemiological control are more important to help optimise the disease control measures Thrombotic complication is an essential issue in patients infected with COVID-19. Concomitant venous thromboembolism (VTE) seems to be a potential cause of unexplained deaths in COVID-19 cases. Thrombocytopenia, elevated D-dimer, prolonged prothrombin time, and disseminated intravascular coagulation are the clinical findings related to such condition. In China, anticoagu-lant therapy in severe COVID-19 was suggested for improving outcome. Studies showed the urgency for VTE diagnostic strategies. Aetiology may be mul-tifactorial, and therefore, we review the available literature relevant to acute venous thromboembolism associated with novel coronavirus infection.