Coagulopathy in elderly patients with coronavirus disease 2019.

Background Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), clinical features have been analyzed in detail. However, coagulopathy in elderly COVID-19 patients has been scarcely reported. Methods Coagulation parameters of 189 patients with COVID-19 in Tongji hospital were retrospectively analyzed among age groups. Results Patients were divided into 2 groups: older group (≥65 years, n = 87) and younger group (<65 years, n = 102). The proportion of patients with elevated fibrinogen (79.0% vs 59.6%, p = .005) and D-dimer (78.0% vs 55.2%, p = .001) shows the significant difference between the groups. The elderly patients revealed significantly longer prothrombin time (14.0 [13.4-14.4]s vs 13.6 [13.2-14.1]s, p = .026), higher D-dimer (1.00 [0.5-1.9] μg/mL vs 0.6 [0.3-1.6] μg/mL, p = .013) and fibrinogen (5.2 [4.1-6.2] g/L vs 4.4 [3.4-5.7] g/L, p = .004) levels, compared to the younger group. A positive correlation was observed between the coagulation parameters and inflammatory markers including high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 (p < .05). Conclusions The hypercoagulable state is more common in elderly COVID-19 patients, and coagulopathy is associated with excessive systemic inflammation.