Before covid vaccines
There’s growing evidence that Covid-19 infection can cause the blood to clot unnaturally, and stroke would be an expected consequence of that. “Our report shows a seven-fold increase in incidence of sudden stroke in young patients during the past two weeks. Most of these patients have no past medical history and were at home with either mild symptoms of Covid,” he added.It is not common for people so young to have strokes, especially strokes in the large vessels in the brain.Covid-19 causes sudden strokes in young adults, doctors say | CanadaThe Australian.
Researchers have discovered a breakthroughlink between organ failure and long Covidafter overcoming contentious Covid-era autopsy regulations and one of the medical profession’s most high-profile legal disputes.
A seven-year Australian study withimplications for strokes and heart attacks has “imagined the unimaginable” in discovering how coagulated red blood cells can clog blood vessels in the same manner astraditional blood clots, laying the groundwork for future treatment.
The research, published in Nature on Thursday, gives the first clear indication of how severe Covid cases can shut down organs despite patients maintaining otherwise healthy arteries.
Lead researcher Shaun Jackson, the founder of stroke drug research group ThromBio, found red blood cells would burst and form thick membranes under low oxygen conditions, blocking microvessels in the process and cutting off blood flow.
Strokes, Covid and heart attacks all create these low-oxygen conditions by rupturing the lining of blood vessels, with Covid reducing capillary function by 60 to 90 per cent.
With an eye to these newly discovered microvascular processes, researchers can better develop treatments distinct from anticoagulants that prevent red blood cell build-up.
“A good body of research asks more questions than it answers, and it opens the door for new ways of thinking and potentially new therapies. That’s how we see this,” Professor Jackson said.
“In the case of Covid, it’s ironic that a disease that’s so new is opening up opportunities in lots of other areas of medicine.
“Now that we’ve pinpointed the key mechanisms that cause this red cell damage … there are some drugs we can use to mop up the toxic things that are released. There’s a very broad range of human diseases where this process could be very important.
