It looks like an important breakthrough in treating COVID-19 has been made and it could explain why this pandemic is particularly deadly for the elderly. Specialists at Britain's Royal Brompton hospital established a link between COVID-19 and clotting by using hi-tech dual energy CAT scans of the lung function of their most serious patients.
All those tested suffered a lack of blood flow, suggesting clotting within the small vessels in the lung. This partly explains why some patients die of lung failure through lack of oxygen in the blood. Low oxygen levels have been regularly recorded in COVID-19 patients reporting no breathlessness.
This does explain the extraordinary clinical picture that is being observed with people becoming very hypoxic., very low on oxygen and not being particularly breathless. That would fit with it having a blood vessel origin.
England's National Health Service is about to issued hospitals with fresh guidelines on blood thinning, which is likely to lead to carefully administered higher doses for the critically ill. Doctors involved in these findings warn that care is needed in the use of blood thinning medication, which in itself can have deadly consequences.
This could establish a link between the varying COVID-19 death rates involving groups of elderly patients. It is quite common for the elderly to be prescribed blood thinning medication if they are prone to blood clots which can lead to strokes.
Initially, it would be rewarding to compare the elderly who died and the elderly who recovered to determine blood thinning records. If those who recovered were using blood thinning medication it would suggest that this delivers a valuable aid that can judiciously be used to help quell the pandemic. The highest group suffering death from COVID-19 are clearly those in the oldest age grouping.
In particular, this virus is deadly if it penetrates an aged care establishment where big groups of elderly citizens are housed closely with one another. We have had instances where infection has spread widely and multiple deaths have occurred.
It could also help to explain the reluctance of many people to obey the personal isolation restrictions. To the vast majority of people this virus delivers a bout of flu from which they will recover. The death rate amongst children and younger people is particularly low in comparison with the elderly, breeding indifference to safety measures. This will have importance once the lockdown ends.
In the absence of a vaccine this is indeed good news. It suggests a possible way of preventing COVID-19 coursing through aged care facilities or perhaps insulating the elderly scattered in the general community, and it has come at a good time with restrictions being eased.
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