PLoS ONE (Jan 2023)

Incidence of lower limb deep vein thrombosis in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia through different waves of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: A multicenter prospective study.

  • Filippo Pieralli,
  • Fulvio Pomero,
  • Lorenzo Corbo,
  • Alberto Fortini,
  • Giulia Guazzini,
  • Lisa Lastraioli,
  • Fabio Luise,
  • Antonio Mancini,
  • Lucia Maddaluni,
  • Alessandro Milia,
  • Lucia Sammicheli,
  • Filippo Mani,
  • Rossella Marcucci

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280247
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 2
p. e0280247

Abstract

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ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) of the lower limbs in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia in a non-ICU setting according to the different waves of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.MethodsMulticenter, prospective study of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia admitted to Internal Medicine units in Italy during the first (March-May 2020) and subsequent waves (November 2020 -April 2021) of the pandemic using a serial compression ultrasound (CUS) surveillance to detect DVT of the lower limbs.ResultsThree-hundred-sixty-three consecutive patients were enrolled. The pooled incidence of DVT was 8%: 13.5% in the first wave, and 4.2% in the subsequent waves (p = 0.002). The proportion of patients with early (ConclusionsIn acutely ill patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, the incidence of DVT of the lower limbs showed a 3-fold decrease during the first with respect to the subsequent waves of the pandemic. A significant increase in thromboprophylaxis initiation prior to hospitalization, and the increase of the intensity of anticoagulation during hospitalization, likely, played a relevant role to explain this observation.