Thread by @loscharlos

“The clots caused by #LongCovid are made of unique proteins.. They're not typical #MicroClots we see with other diseases.. they're made up almost fully of abnormal type of fibrin.. amyloid" — Roy Silverstein, hematologist at Medical College of Wisconsin npr.org/2023/05/10/117…

“All #LongCovid patients Putrino has tested have microclots & hyperactivated platelets, which is something he doesn't commonly see in people who have never had COVID or fully recovered. It's this high level of microclots in LC patients that Putrino thinks might be the biomarker.”

"The spike protein has the capability to change your soluble clotting protein to insoluble little microclots.. @resiapretorius. "So when you have acute COVID you will have activated platelets, you will have vascular damage & endothelial damage” #LongCovid

“After around 2 weeks, the body will begin to break down those insoluble microclots & will return to normal. But for others, those microclots hang around & can damage blood vessels as well as block blood flow to many organs — which could explain #LongCovid wide-ranging symptoms”

“You get widespread and systemic-induced.. inflammation of your blood vessels.. If it's systemic, it means it's in every organ. It's in every part of your body," @resiapretorius says. #LongCovid

"It means that oxygen transfer cannot happen as it should, between your blood and your organ systems because the vehicle, the blood, is damaged these clots [are] in there. But more importantly, your vasculature is compromised." #LongCovid

“Often we are told, well, 'Everything's testing normal. We tested all standard panels, everything's.. normal.' I think one of the things that we need to say over and over again is.. standard blood panels we test for.. capture a very narrow scope of our physiology," @PutrinoLab

“The work @PutrinoLab and @resiapretorius are doing shows that the microclots they are seeing, in addition to hyperactivated platelets, ‘can really mess with your body's ability to function.’ The next step is to find a way to make a mainstream test for it.” #LongCovid

“There are other diseases that are marked by changes to the blood's clotting patterns in the capillaries, namely Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP) and Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). The clots caused by #LongCovid are made of unique proteins.”

“[3 years is] a really, really long time to be suffering with this illness, which, in many cases has a quality of life just so, so low, like unfathomably low to most people — definitely unfathomably low to me..not having known about Post-Viral illness beforehand” — @ahandvanish

“Because of that urgency, @resiapretorius took an unusual step — crowdfunding donations to buy a flow cytometer.. In order to iron out a methodology that could work for clinical settings,” #LongCovid

While Pretorius.. is making progress, @ahandvanish says that it shouldn't have come to this.

“It shouldn't have to be like this, right?.. it should be the case that millions of dollars are designated for finding a biomarker or identifying & creating a test or both" #LongCovid