Open AccessA Covid-19 Patient with Complement-Mediated Coagulopathy and Severe Thrombosis
Author(s) -
Christopher Showers,
Gerard J. Nuovo,
Amit Lakhanpal,
Caroline H. Siegel,
Juliet Aizer,
Lauren Elreda,
Alexandra Halevi,
Andrew Lai,
Doruk Erkan,
Cynthia M. Magro
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
pathobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1423-0291
pISSN - 1015-2008
DOI - 10.1159/000512503
Subject(s) - coagulopathy , medicine , thrombosis , covid-19 , antibody , immunology , virology , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty)
We report a patient with severe Covid-19-associated coagulopathy and type 2 diabetes mellitus who tested positive for antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL). Analysis of skin specimens suggested direct SARS-CoV-2 viral-induced and complement-mediated vascular injury and thrombosis, consistent with prior reports. Serial aPL testing demonstrated high levels of anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) that declined to insignificant levels over a period of 5 weeks. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in nasopharyngeal swab specimens on serial assays performed over the same 5-week period, though it was not detected thereafter. We hypothesize that SARS-CoV-2 viral-induced aPL contributed to severe Covid-19-associated coagulopathy in this patient.