High blood viscosity can predict higher risk of death in hospitalized COVID 19 patients

The large-scale study is the first to evaluate blood viscosity in the prediction of mortality in COVID-19 patients. A simple calculation of blood viscosity was more robust in the identification of hospitalized patients at risk for dying from COVID-19 complications when compared to common measures of inflammation and the blood clotting biomarker D-dimer. The study is published in Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Researchers looked at records of 5,621 COVID-19 patients from six hospitals in the Mount Sinai Health System between February 27, 2020, and November 27, 2021. All had clinical and laboratory-verified diagnoses of COVID 19 and were identified within 48 hours of hospitalization and followed until hospital discharge or death.

Hospitalized patients who had high blood viscosity had a 60 percent higher death rate with blood viscosity measured under high flow conditions such as the arteries and 32 percent higher mortality with blood viscosity measured at low flow such as the microcirculation (blood circulation in the smallest vessels), than patients with a low blood viscosity.