Researchers have used a minimally-invasive test to identify clots in small blood vessels in the skin of patients with severe COVID-19 that appeared normal, according to a study. These clots were not seen in the skin of patents with other types of severe infectious lung disease, or in individuals with only mild or moderate COVID-19, the researchers said. A skin biopsy is a procedure to remove cells or skin samples from for laboratory examination.
The researchers said a skin biopsy can help assess tissue damage related to COVID-19 as well as help distinguish this blood vessel pathology from other forms of severe respiratory illnesses.
Prior to this study, recently published in The American Journal of Pathology, invasive procedures such as nerve, kidney, or lung biopsy would have been required.
"We were the first group to recognise that the lung disease of acute COVID-19 was different from other severe critical respiratory infections, and that the unusual pathology was systemic," said study lead investigator Jeffrey Laurence, from Weill Cornell Medicine institute in the US.
The researchers collected 4 millimetre (mm) biopsy samples of normal-appearing skin from 15 patients who were in intensive care with COVID-19 and six patients with mild to moderate disease symptoms, such as fever, chills, cough, or shortness of breath.