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.