Now if we had ANY STROKE LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGY we could be assured that this will be followed up and protocols created to prevent clotting.
'New mechanism for stroke?': Blood clotting in coronavirus patients has experts looking at role of viruses in causing stroke
A growing body of evidence is painting a grim picture of how coronavirus can wreak havoc from one end of the body to the other.
It's well established that COVID-19 affects the respiratory system and targets the lungs. But several studies and anecdotal evidence suggest the disease may also cause super-charged blood clotting that damages vital organs, including the kidneys, heart and brain.
The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a case report on a small cluster of strokes in New York that involved young, healthy people, who had the virus but no known risk factors for stroke.
But strokes, where a clot blocks blood flow to the brain, appear to be just one way damage from clotting can play out in COVID-19 patients.
There are also reports of 'COVID toes' - painful red inflammations of the feet linked to blood clots.
Then there is the widely reported story of 41-year-old Broadway actor Nick Cordero, whose right leg was amputated after he developed severe blood clots while he was in hospital being treated for coronavirus.
'New mechanism for stroke'
Some experts suggest that what's going on may represent an entirely new way in which blood clots can form.
It might be the case that viruses generally have a more direct role in causing strokes than has been previously thought, says an Australian doctor working on the frontline against COVID-19 in New York.
"We are asking ourselves... have we just discovered a new mechanism of stroke?" says Associate Professor Thomas Oxley, Interventional Neurologist at New York's Mt Sinai Hospital, where thousands of COVID-19 patients have been treated.
Strokes kill brain cells and are a major cause of death and disability. They can cause changes in language, mood, vision and movement. In up to 30 per cent of strokes, the cause is unknown.
Dr Oxley says there is some evidence the clotting leading to strokes and other issues might be being triggered directly by an interaction between the virus and the blood vessel wall.
"I'm a stroke neurologist but we don't usually think about viral infection as a cause for stroke. That [idea] is something very new in medicine."
The role of blood clots
Dr Oxley says the links coming to light between the virus and blood clotting show the virus is affecting the body's blood system, as well as the respiratory system.
"Up to this point, we've been focusing on pneumonia as the primary problem caused by COVID-19," Dr Oxley says. Pneumonia is when the tiny air sacs in the lungs become full of fluid, making it hard to breathe.
"We are now learning there is another major cause of disease by COVID and it's got to do with the formation of blood clots."
Among the problems doctors around the world have been reporting are an increase in clots in the deep veins of the legs (known as deep vein thrombosis or DVT) and the lungs (pulmonary embolisms).
Around one in four people with coronavirus who end up in intensive care will develop a pulmonary embolism, while the incidence of clots in the deep veins of the legs or in the lungs is 30 to 70 per cent.
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