Sars-CoV-2 induced coagulopathy and prognosis in hospitalized patients: A snapshot from Italy

After Wuhan, in China, Italy has become the European country with the highest number of cases and deaths by Sars-Cov-2.1,2 It has been reported from China the presence of altered coagulation parameters in a significant proportion of hospitalized patients.3–5 In addition, increased D-dimer (DD) levels have gained particular attention as predictors of acute respiratory distress syndrome development, the need of intensive care unit(ICU) admission, or death.6,7 It is well known that DD is a highly nonspecific marker which may be only the mirror of the clotting activation following the inflammatory process.8,9 Nevertheless, several thrombotic complications havebeen reported in patients with Covid-19 treated in ICU and the possible treatment with heparin appears to be very attractive.10 Before this therapeutic application, it is mandatory to verify and report to the scientific community which is the trend of coagulation parameters, so that we can accumulate several observations useful to design ad hoc interventional trials. In this scenario, we decided to analyze the routine coagulation parameters—prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), DD, and platelet count—of a consecutive series of patients with documented infection by Sars-Cov-2 hospitalized in Careggi Hospital, Florence, Italy