PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Miami doctors have made a potentially lifesaving discovery: Blood clots could be an early indicator of COVID-19.
Surgeons at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine say the finding indicates that you don’t have to be suffering from the typical symptoms to be living with the coronavirus.
“We’re used to just the respiratory systems. Loss of smell and taste,” said Dr. Jorge Rey, UHealth’s chief of vascular surgery. “Now with this, we are more aggressive with treating COVID-19 patients with anticoagulants early on.”
The discovery was made when a patient came in with clots in the arteries of his arm, which caused the loss of blood flow.
Doctors got to work fast and they found out that the patient had COVID-19.
Rey says he has seen multiple patients with this symptom.
He wants clinicians to be alert — and look out for COVID-19 infections when patients present no suspected risk factors.
The UM discovery has been published nationally in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.