A new challenge of unfractionated heparin anticoagulation treatment for moderate to severe COVID-19 in Japan

Rubuna Sato; Masahiro Ishikane; Noriko Kinoshita; Tetsuya Suzuki; Takato Nakamoto; Kayoko Hayakawa; Norifumi Bekki; Hisao Hara; Norio Ohmagari

doi:10.35772/ghm.2020.01044

A new challenge of unfractionated heparin anticoagulation treatment for moderate to severe COVID-19 in Japan

Glob Health Med. 2020 Jun 30;2(3):190-192. doi: 10.35772/ghm.2020.01044.

Authors

Rubuna Sato¹, Masahiro Ishikane^{1

2}, Noriko Kinoshita¹, Tetsuya Suzuki¹, Takato Nakamoto¹, Kayoko Hayakawa^{1

2}, Norifumi Bekki³, Hisao Hara³, Norio Ohmagari^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Disease Control and Prevention Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
² AMR Clinical Reference Center, Disease Control and Prevention Center, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Department of Cardiology, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Hypercoagulation and anticoagulation treatment have become new challenges in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. We herein suggest an algorithm for an anticoagulation treatment with unfractionated heparin in moderate to severe COVID-19 cases in Japan, and report a case of COVID-19 pneumonia with anticoagulation treatment. Although several promising drugs for COVID-19 are being tested in clinical trials, definitive treatments have not yet been established. In this report, we demaonstrate that anticoagulation treatment with unfractionated heparin has the possibility of becoming at least a supportive treatment for COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; anticoagulation treatment; hypercoagulation; unfractionated heparin.

2020, National Center for Global Health and Medicine.