New Anticoagulant Therapy as a Treatment for Pulmonary Thromboembolism in Patients During the COVID-19 Epidemic.

BACKGROUND

Pulmonary embolism is a frequent, serious and life-threatening complication that represents the embolization of mostly thrombotic material into the pulmonary arteries, with complete or partial occlusion of one or more of its branches.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the effectiveness of new anticoagulants (NOAC) in the long-term treatment of pulmonary embolism (PE) in patients with and without COVID-19.

METHODS

Retrospective and descriptive analysis based on data from medical records in the period 2021-2023. from the Zenica Cantonal Hospital.

RESULTS

Data were collected from 160 respondents, of which 33 (20.6%) were COVID-19 positive and 127 (79.4%) were not. Subjects with COVID-19 in 12 (36.4%) cases had reference D-dimer values, while 21 (63.6%) had elevated values. 9.1% had elevated platelet values, 78.8% had reference values, and 12.1% had decreased values. Among subjects without COVID-19, 50 (39.4%) had reference values of D-dimer, while 77 (60.6%) had an increase. 1 (0.8%) of subjects had decreased platelet values, 118 (92.9%) had reference values, and 8 (6.3%) had increased platelet values. No subjects with decreased D-dimer values were recorded.

CONCLUSION

DOAC therapy showed equal efficacy in the long-term treatment of pulmonary embolism in both study groups, regardless of whether the subjects had COVID-19 or not.