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Comment by symplee | Hacker News Reader

Not a doctor, just a thought, could this in part be caused by some sort of Deep Vein Thrombosis or other clots due to people not physically moving as much during quarantine?

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A friend from Germany told me that they are looking exactly in this and they found that dead COVID-19 patients had clots. He's a smart and well informed guy and it made sense at the time, but I did not find some primary sources to corroborate.

The part about clots forming literally as the surgeon was operating seems much more exotic than something so simple as reduced activity.

Did the earliest victims of Covid19 also show similar levels of clots? Or are we only seeing elevated levels recently? Could help to plot this over time as the lockdown extends. If there's a correlation, would help to stress the importance of staying active in quarantine, ex: lifting, stationary bike, jump rope.

I think there's a bias in the data because a) lots of people die from the respiratory symptoms before they get a stroke, and b) young people who get a stroke might not know how to recognize it/what to do about it, so they may just stay at home and die there and never get recorded as a COVID death.

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is unlikely to cause strokes, as DVT causes clots to form in the venous system, while strokes involve clots in the arterial system. Clots from veins are more likely to get lodged in the lungs (pulmonary embolism) than pass across the lungs into arteries.

The higher prevalence of strokes in COVID patients isn’t fully understood, but might be due a generally increased inflammatory state in the body, with complement (a cascade of proteins involved in immune response) seeming to play a significant role. It’s known that inflammatory states generally increase risk of clotting (eg cancer, surgery) but it remains to be seen if COVID is having a similar effect, or a more direct influence.

There were some preliminary reports about COVID thickening the blood of patients. Clearly preliminary, but it might not be entirely driven by sedentary behavior.

And maybe also dietary changes due to lockdown: Higher sodium, more preservatives, less fruit and vegetables. Less trips to grocery store means buying more food that has a longer shelf-life than people would normally be eating.

I work at a homeless shelter where a young guy in his mid twenties recently had a stroke that left one of his hands completely limp. He's active and outdoors all day, but cannot self-isolate at night because he lives in a shelter.

I was shocked when he told me because he's "fit as a fiddle" otherwise. This article makes some sense of it.

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