Anticoagulant therapy in patients with acute coronary syndrome and COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, the level of understanding of the etiopathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of this disease is also growing. To date, it is becoming clear that infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 is a predisposition to a state of hypercoagulation with some thrombotic events, including acute coronary syndrome. However, despite the fact that the pandemic began 1 year ago, uncertainty about anticoagulant therapy in patients with COVID-19 continues to prevail. Given that there is currently no standardized approach to anticoagulation in patients with ACS and COVID-19, we conducted a review of the scientific literature on this problem. As a result of the study, it was found that the management tactics of patients with ACS and COVID-19 generally do not differ from the standard accepted ones. However, special attention should be paid to drug interactions between antiplatelet drugs, anticoagulants, and COVID-19 therapy. We also noted that in addition to anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory properties, heparins have a direct antiviral effect. All patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction should receive standard medical therapy, which includes unfractionated heparin. In patients with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction with an early invasive strategy, it is recommended to use heparin instead of low-molecularweight heparin as the anticoagulant of choice. At the same time, the use of low-molecular-weight heparin in patients with myocardial infarction without ST-segment elevation and COVID-19 is preferable to unfractionated heparin.

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