TY - JOUR T1 - Observational study of the use of recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator in COVID-19 shows a decrease in physiological dead space JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00455-2020 VL - 6 IS - 4 SP - 00455-2020 AU - Sarah Orfanos AU - Ibrahim El Husseini AU - Thomas Nahass AU - Jared Radbel AU - Sabiha Hussain Y1 - 2020/10/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/6/4/00455-2020.abstract N2 - In December 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged as the causative agent for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a clinical syndrome with high incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Part of the pathophysiology of COVID-19-induced ARDS is explained by increased dead space ventilation from pulmonary microthrombi; this is supported by the existence of alveolar capillary microthrombi found on autopsies [1, 2]. This has prompted the use of therapeutic anticoagulation and thrombolytics [3–5]. Thus far, no clinical trials have been completed to evaluate the use of recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) to treat COVID-19. The objective of this study was to determine whether rt-PA administration decreases dead space ventilation in patients with COVID-19.#COVID19-induced ARDS is partly explained by the presence of microthrombi, motivating the use of thrombolytics. This study shows that thrombolytics decrease dead space ventilation in COVID-19 ARDS patients. https://bit.ly/2GdM44a ER -