Episode 18: Professor Resia Pretorius - Micro clots

Professor Resia Pretorius and her collaborators at Stellenbosch University in South Africa have argued for some time that COVID-19 is not just a respiratory disease but also a vascular disease.  In August of 2021 they published a study in Cardiovascular Diabetology detailing the identification of micro clots in the blood of Long Covid patients.

The research suggests that inflammatory molecules are "trapped" inside insoluble microscopic blood clots. This might be the cause of some of the lingering symptoms experienced by individuals with Long COVID.

The Long Covid community, some now suffering for more than 20 months, are urgently looking for relief from their symptoms. This discovery may eventually lead to a potential treatment. One clinic in Germany is already using a blood filtration method as a treatment but the science has yet to catch up.

Before people start booking tickets to Müllheim we wanted to take a look at the science behind these micro clots. We spoke to Professor Pretorius to learn about how they were discovered, how they might be impacting us, and what are the next steps in the research of this potential mechanism. As with so much of this condition there are overlaps with other autoimmune disorders and Pretorius has in past studies found micro clots in the blood of those with inflammatory conditions such as Lupus and Diabetes.