Blood thinners may improve survival in 'moderately ill' COVID patients
Blood thinning drugs improve survival and reduce the need for vital organ support in moderately ill COVID-19 patients, LCRN-supported research has found.
The findings about anticoagulants drugs come from the Randomised, Embedded, Multi-factorial Adaptive Platform Trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia trial (REMAP-CAP) trial into COVID-19 treatments and two other studies. More than 120 people took part in REMAP-CAP in Berkshire, Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire.
Early in the pandemic, physicians around the world observed increased rates of blood clots and inflammation among COVID-19 patients which affected multiple organs and led to complications such as lung failure, heart attack and stroke.
The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated benefit when anticoagulants were started while patients were less sick on the general ward. Treatment did not improve outcomes if started when patients were already critically ill with the disease.
Read more on the NIHR website
