Enough pieces of evidence have suggested that COVID-19 is not just a lung disease as it was initially assumed. It can also cause dangerous blood clots, which can affect limbs, say experts. Studies around the world have shown that blood clot formation called deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in COVID-19 patients is 14% to 28%.

The situation of DVT is similar in India, said experts, while emphasising that the infection is as much about blood vessels as it is for lungs. “We are dealing with five-six such cases per week on average. This week it has been one a day of such complications,” said Dr Ambarish Satwik, a vascular and endovascular surgeon at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

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The chances of DVT formation in COVID-19 patients is higher if the patient has conditions such as type-2 diabetes Mellitus, although the exact remains unknown, said Amrish Kumar, a consultant in the cardiothoracic vascular department, Aakash Healthcare in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka locality.

While DVT is a serious condition that occurs when a blood clot forms in a vein located deep inside the body, arterial thrombosis is a clot that develops in an artery. Arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood away from the heart to the body, while veins carry blood low in oxygen from the body back to the heart.

Satwik drew attention to the COVID-19-clot connection in a tweet earlier this week in which he posted a picture of a blood clot cast retrieved from the lower limb arteries of a COVID-19 patient.

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“What COVID clots look like. Covid produces blood clots. The incidence of heart attack, stroke, or limb loss due to an arterial clot in Covid varies from 2 per cent-5 per cent. We pried these out of the lower limb arteries of a Covid patient. We were able to save the limb,” Satwik said on Wednesday.