Heparin. It’s not a new drug but a well known and inexpensive anticoagulant with negligible cost…and apparently Italian pathologists are finding it to be effective in the fight against Sars-CoV-2!
As a blood thinner, heparin prevents the formation of abnormal blood clots, which – according to what Italian specialists have found after the first autopsies carried out on the infected corpses – appear to be precious allies of Covid-19,
By following suggestions offered by other specialists (cardiologists and neurologists), anatomopathologists have made a discovery that could dramatically change the current COVID-19 scenario.
Specialists who are in continuous contact with other Italian doctors (from Milan, Brescia, Pavia, Bergamo, Naples and Palermo) and who prefer to remain anonymous during this experimental phase, are saying that “The main problem is not the virus, but the immune reaction which destroys those cells in which the virus has entered. The problem is cardiovascular, not respiratory. People go to resuscitation for generalized venous thromboembolism, especially (but not only) pulmonary (brain autopsy test results are also expected). Many of the victims, even those in their forties had suffered from a high fever which had lasted 10-15 days and was not adequately treated. Inflammation has destroyed everything and prepared the ground for the formation of thrombi. It was not easy to understand it because the signs of the microemboli appeared blurred, even at after an echocardiogram“.
The cocktail that could defeat the disease is made up of anti-inflammatories (“scientific literature, especially Chinese, stated until mid-March, that they should not be used“) and anti-coagulants. But studies are still in their infancy. Anatomopathologists are now asking to proceed with the investigation of the deaths of relatively young and otherwise healthy patients, with the aim of compiling as much data as possible about the onset date of the symptoms, any comorbidities, which therapies were carried out, the oxygen support system and passage into intensive care, so as to better understand the causes behind the examined damaged lungs and explain some anomalous findings.
However, heparin-based therapies have in fact been underway for a few days, even before the go-ahead from the Italian drug agency – and the results are beginning to spark enthusiasm (without abandoning necessary caution).
“We would not like to seem excessive – tresearchers clarify – but we believe we have demonstrated the cause of this virus’ lethality. If this were the case, resuscitations and intubations are not needed, because first of all you have to dissolve, or rather prevent, these thromboembolisms. It is of little use to ventilate a lung where blood does not reach. The effectiveness of the therapeutic treatment, then, leads us to believe that this is the main reason why hospitalizations in Italy are decreasing. This disease may be curable at home.”
The next step is to officially adopt the therapeutic protocols which have already been followed and proved succesful. In Bari (capital of southern Italy’s Puglia region) a group of doctors is preparing a document to be submitted to the institutional bodies.
“The main cause of aggravation in part of the patients – until hospitalization in intensive care is necessary – seems in fact to be a powerful activation of the blood coagulation system. In a nutshell, it would seem that the virus triggers a rather intense inflammatory reaction by the body, which in turn would produce damage to the cells that line small blood vessels. The damage, no more or less than what we get when injured, triggers the blood coagulation reaction. Of course, being that the virus spreads in large parts of our body, it results in a diffused microthrombosis. The therapies in place would seem to already provide excellent results, which would be even more important if this therapy was started early, at the beginning of the virus’ course. This practice is already taking placy in many hospitals throughout Italy and is also spreading at a territorial level, because patients with the initial symptoms of the Covid-19 disease could easily be followed at home, drastically reducing both the number of hospitalizations and, above all, the incidence of those severe complications that lead the patient to intensive care and death”.
Sources: La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, La Stampa, La Repubblica
