Among hospitalised adult COVID-19 patients, prophylactic and therapeutic anticoagulation are associated with much lower rates of intubation and death, a US retrospective study shows.

As reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), doctors examined the association of anticoagulation with mortality, intubation and major bleeding in 4389 people with COVID-19 (median age 65 years, 44% women).

They also conducted subanalyses on the association of therapeutic vs prophylactic anticoagulation initiated within 48 hours of admission, as well as thrombolytic findings in 26 consecutive autopsies.

Compared with no anticoagulation (34.9% of patients), therapeutic (20.5%) and prophylactic anticoagulation (44.6%) were associated with about half the rate of in-hospital mortality and about a 30% reduced risk of intubation.