Introduction:
The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has caused a global pandemic of a
life-threatening, multi-organic disease i.e., COVID-19 (1). Its outbreak
began in late 2019 and early 2020 in Wuhan, China by affecting a large
number of people and then spread rapidly all around the world (2).
Evidence suggests that patients afflicted with COVID-19 are subject to
significant risks of thromboembolic complications which affect mainly
their intravenous system and sometimes, their arterial vascular system
(3). Although the pathogenic mechanism of COVID-19 is not completely
clear (4), it seems that coagulopathy is one of the serious problems
that patients afflicted with COVID-19 grapple with (5). Based on the
results of the preliminary investigations on COVID-19 pandemic,
thrombocytopenia (36.2%) and elevated D-dimer level (46.4%) are
usually observed in the affected patients (6). Yet, in patients affected
by severe forms of the disease, the prevalence of these two conditions
is even higher (57.7% and 59.6%, respectively) (6). The results of the
studies on COVID-19 patients have shown that the affected patients are
subject to higher risks of Diffuse Intravascular Coagulation (DIC)
(6-8). Elevated D-dimer level, prolonged prothrombin, and increased
level of fibrin degradation products have been reported to be associated
with poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients (8). Therefore, the present
study aimed to investigate the occurrence of coagulation disorders in
COVID-19 patients and determine its relationship with the disease
outcome.