Fortuzi Ked, Ghazanfar Haider, Haider Asim, Patel Komal, Patel Madanmohan
Internal Medicine, Bronxcare Health System, Bronx, USA.
Cureus. 2020 Jun 29;12(6):e8900. doi: 10.7759/cureus.8900.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing pandemic. COVID-19 leads to a plethora of clinical syndromes, most commonly affecting the pulmonary system but also the cardiovascular, hematologic, and gastrointestinal systems. There is emerging evidence of an association between COVID-19 and venous thromboembolism (VTE). In this report, we have discussed three cases with a COVID-19 infection, whose clinical course was complicated by the presence of pulmonary embolism (PE) without evident risk factors for VTE. All three patients presented with hypoxia and were found to have elevated D-dimer levels. Subsequently, the patients underwent computed tomography (CT) angiography of the chest, which confirmed the presence of pulmonary embolism. Anticoagulation was initiated per guidelines. There is a need to have a low threshold for suspecting pulmonary embolism in patients with COVID-19 infection who present with a sudden onset of severe hypoxia. There is a dire need to increase awareness among health care providers regarding this manifestation of the virus.
2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）是一场持续的大流行病。COVID-19会引发多种临床综合征，最常见的是影响肺部系统，但也会影响心血管、血液和胃肠道系统。有新证据表明COVID-19与静脉血栓栓塞（VTE）之间存在关联。在本报告中，我们讨论了3例COVID-19感染病例，其临床病程因出现无明显VTE危险因素的肺栓塞（PE）而复杂化。所有3例患者均出现缺氧，且D-二聚体水平升高。随后，患者接受了胸部计算机断层扫描（CT）血管造影，证实存在肺栓塞。根据指南开始抗凝治疗。对于出现突然严重缺氧的COVID-19感染患者，怀疑肺栓塞的阈值应较低。迫切需要提高医疗保健提供者对该病毒这一表现的认识。
