1. Prevalence of Readily Detected Amyloid Blood Clots in ‘Unclotted’ COVID-19 Plasma
- Author
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Petrus Johannes Lourens, Gert Jacobus Laubscher, Janami Steenkamp, Douglas B. Kell, Chantelle Venter, and Etheresia Pretorius
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Research ethics ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,business.industry ,education ,Declaration ,Medical research ,Test (assessment) ,Family medicine ,Good clinical practice ,Medicine ,Sample collection ,business ,Declaration of Helsinki - Abstract
The rapid detection of COVID-19 uses genotypic testing for the presence of SARS-Cov-2 virus in nasopharyngeal swabs, but it can have a poor sensitivity. A rapid, host-based physiological test that indicated whether the individual was infected or not would be highly desirable. Coagulaopathies are a common accompaniment to COVID-19, especially micro-clots within the lungs. We show here that microclots can be detected in the native plasma of COVID-19 patient, without the addition of any clotting agent, and in particular that such clots are amyloid in nature as judged by a standard fluorogenic stain. This provides a rapid and convenient test with 100% sensitivity (P
- Published
- 2020
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