A report by Kaiser Health News says that although COVID-19 is commonly called a respiratory disease, doctors are seeing now that the coronavirus appears to attack the vascular system, the body’s network of arteries, veins, and capillaries.  Some of the impacts range from the strange rashes on toes (COVID toes) to blood clots in the lungs and brain to strokes.  Autopsies on some of the COVID-19 patients show that the virus can damage the cells lining the inside of every blood vessel.

In a study published this summer, vascular biologist Dr. William Li and an international team of researchers compared the lung tissues of people who died of COVID-19 with those of people who died of influenza. They found stark differences: the lung tissues of the COVID victims had nine times as many tiny blood clots as those of the influenza victims.

A major source of damage to the vascular system likely also comes from the body’s own runaway immune response to the coronavirus.  Doctors say that the SARS-CoV-2 virus often causes an unprecedented level of inflammation in the bloodstream.  When inflammation spreads through the inner lining of the blood vessels — a condition called endothelialitis — blood clots can form throughout the body, starving tissues of oxygen and promoting even more inflammation.

Doctors who treat COVID-19 are now  aware that complications such as strokes and heart problems can appear even after a patient gets better and their breathing improves.

For the full story from Kaiser Health News, click here.