PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Carallo, Claudio AU - Pugliese, Fabiola AU - Vettorato, Elisa AU - Tripolino, Cesare AU - Delle Donne, Livia AU - Guarrera, Giovanni AU - Spagnolli, Walter AU - Cozzio, Susanna TI - Higher heparin dosages reduce thromboembolic complications in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia AID - 10.1136/jim-2020-001628 DP - 2021 Apr 01 TA - Journal of Investigative Medicine PG - 884--887 VI - 69 IP - 4 4099 - http://jim.bmj.com/content/69/4/884.short 4100 - http://jim.bmj.com/content/69/4/884.full SO - J Investig Med2021 Apr 01; 69 AB - Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new viral disease complicating with acute thrombophylic conditions, probably also via an inflammatory burden. Anticoagulants are efficacious, but their optimal preventive doses are unknown. The present study was aimed to compare different enoxaparin doses/kg of body weight in the prevention of clot complications in COVID-19 pneumonia. Retrospective data from a cohort of adult patients hospitalized for COVID-19 pneumonia, never underwent to oropharyngeal intubation before admission, were collected in an Internal Medicine environments equipped for non-invasive ventilation. Unfavorable outcomes were considered as: deep venous thrombosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, pulmonary embolism, cardiovascular death. Fourteen clinical thromboembolic events among 42 hospitalized patients were observed. Patients were divided into two group on the basis of median heparin dose (0.5 mg—or 50 IU—for kg). The decision about heparin dosing was patient by patient. Higher enoxaparin therapy (mean 0.62±0.16 mg/kg) showed a better thromboprophylactic action (HR=0.2, p=0.04) with respect to lower doses (mean 0.42±0.06 mg/kg), independently from the clinical presentation of the disease. Therefore, COVID-19 pneumonia might request higher enoxaparin doses to reduce thromboembolic events in hospitalized patients, even if outside intensive care units.