Blood-thinning drugs could stop some coronavirus patients from dying by preventing blood clots from forming on their lungs, leading medical researchers have said.

Specialists at Royal Brompton Hospital’s severe respiratory failure service say they have confirmed a suspected link between Covid-19 and blood clotting.

Doctors used state-of-the-art technology to scan the lungs of critically ill patients and found all those tested had a lack of blood flow which indicated clotting in the small blood vessels.

The deaths of some coronavirus sufferers have previously been attributed to a lack of oxygen in the blood.

Specialists at UCL this week reported patterns of blood clots in various parts of Covid patients’ bodies, several with brain clots leading to strokes.

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Doctors have also widely observed unusually high levels of oxygen deprivation in patients which would normally make them appear far more ill than they do.

NHS England is reportedly set to issue hospitals with new guidance on blood-thinners, also known as anticoagulants, although they will likely only be advised for very severe cases.

Experts said blanket use of the drugs would not be appropriate and would have to start very early to prevent the clots from forming.

Dr Brijesh Patel, senior critical care physician and clinical senior lecturer at Royal Brompton and Imperial College London, said: ‘These are very unwell patients but I think the majority of patients will end up on significant therapeutic doses of blood-thinning agents as we learn more about this disease.

‘If these interventions in the blood are implemented appropriately, they will save lives.’

Dr Patel warned that medics will ‘have to be cautious’ with the drugs or they risk causing harm to patients.

He added: ‘There are a variety of blood-thinning agents as well. Which (drug) you use depends on the patient so we have to have a more personalised medicine approach.

Professor Peter Openshaw, who sits on the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) sub-group on clinical information, suggested the discovery could be a breakthrough in understanding signs of oxygen deprivation in patients more widely.

He said: ‘It does sort of explain the rather extraordinary clinical picture that is being observed with people becoming very hypoxic, very low on oxygen and not really being particularly breathless.’

‘That would fit with it having a blood vessel origin.’

‘All the time we are discovering new twists and this intravascular clotting is a really nasty twist that we haven’t seen before with many other viruses.’

Experts at Hammersmith Hospital and Royal Brompton are also looking at the link between immune inflammation and blood clotting.

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