Pulmonary embolism and COVID-19: a "special phenotype"?

Introduction: Pulmonary vascular microthrombotic lesions that have been described in COVID-19 patient´s performed autopsies, suggest that a considerable number of pulmonary embolism (PE) cases were consequence of local thrombo-inflammation embolizations rather than from other phlebothrombosis sources. Aim: The aim of our study was to compare clinical features, analitic and radiological findings of patients with or without COVID-19 diagnosis, who were diagnosed with PE. Methods: Retrospective analysis on patients diagnosed with PE who were treated at Pneumology department of University Hospital of Araba in 2020. Student T and Mann-Whitney tests were used to compare continuous variables. Fisher9s exact test was used to compare categorical variables. SPSS statistical package (version 15, SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois), was used for the statistical data management. We considered as a significance level the presence of two-sided p<0.05. Results: 181 patients were included, 42 (23,2% [IC95: 17.65-29.87]) had previously been diagnosed of COVID-19. Medium age was 65,14 years (SD 13,74) in COVID-19 group and 68,36 years (SD 15,07) in no COVID-19 group. Male sex represented 64,29% and 51,80% respectively. Comparison of both groups has been reflected in Figure 1. Conclusions: No statistically significant differences were observed in order to stablish a “special PE phenotype” in patients who were diagnosis during COVID-19 disease, in our study.