A recent study conducted by investigators from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) University of Medicine and Health Sciences has discovered why some patients with a COVID-19 infection can develop life-threatening blood clots.

"Our research helps provide insights into the mechanisms that cause severe blood clots in patients with Covid-19, which is critical to developing more effective treatments," Jamie O'Sullivan, a corresponding author on the study and a research lecturer within the Irish Centre for Vascular Biology at RCSI said.

Research has been conducted previously which established blood clotting as a significant cause of death in COVID-19 patients

For this study, the team of investigators analyzed blood samples which were taken from patients who had a confirmed infection with COVID-19 and were in the Beaumont Hospital Intensive Care Unit in Dublin

When compared to the control groups in the study, those with a COVID-19 infection had higher levels of pro-clotting VWF molecules and lower levels of the anti-clotting ADAMTS13 in their blood