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Coronavirus blood-clot mystery intensifies

Research begins to pick apart the mechanisms behind a deadly COVID-19 complication.
  1. Cassandra Willyard

    1. Cassandra Willyard is a science writer based in Madison, Wisconsin.

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Purple rashes, swollen legs, clogged catheters and sudden death — blood clots, large and small, are a frequent complication of COVID-19, and researchers are just beginning to untangle why. For weeks, reports have poured in of the disease’s effects throughout the body, many of which are caused by clots. “This is like a storm of blood clots,” says Behnood Bikdeli, a fourth-year cardiology fellow at Columbia University in New York City. Anyone with a severe illness is at risk of developing clots, but hospitalized patients with COVID-19 seem to be more susceptible.

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Nature 581, 250 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01403-8

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 13 May 2020: An earlier version of this story located Zurich in Germany and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in New York City. It also gave the wrong name for the division that Robert Flaumenhaft heads.

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