rate of venous thromboembolism in a prospective all-comers cohort with covid-19

Covid-19 is associated with a variety of clinical complications including coagulopathy, which frequently results in venous thromboembolism (vte). retrospective analyses reported a markedly increased rate of vtes in covid-19. however, most recent studies on coagulopathy in covid-19 were only focused on critically ill patients, and without suitable control groups. we aimed to evaluate the rate of vtes in an all-comers cohort with suspected covid-19 during a 30-days follow-up period. we also studied the level of d-dimers and their association with the course of disease. in our prospective single-center study (drks00021206, 03/30/2020), we analyzed 190 patients with suspected covid-19 admitted to the emergency department between and 2020. forty-nine patients were sars-cov-2 positive (25.8%). the 141 sars-cov-2-negative patients served as control group. after completion of a 30-days follow-up, vte was diagnosed in 3 patients of the sars-cov-2-positive group (6.1%, amongst these 2 icu cases) versus 5 patients in the sars-cov-2-negative group (3.5%), however the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.427). 30-days mortality was similar in both groups (6.1% vs. 5%, p = 0.720). disease severity correlated with the maximum level of d-dimers during follow-up in covid-19. the rate of vte was numerically higher in sars-cov-2 positive all-comers presenting with suspected covid-19 as compared to well-matched controls suffering from similar symptoms. vtes in the covid-19 group predominantly occurred in icu courses. the maximum level of d-dimers during follow-up was associated with disease severity in covid-19, whereas the level of d-dimers at admission was not.