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.