Farid Jalali MD (@farid__jalali)
nitter.net
Updated 🧵 on pathophysiology of COVID-19: We have had numerous descriptive studies, highlighting what we "see" as different in this disease. Examples include measurements and evolution of chemokine, cytokines, lung mechanics, histopathology, and peculiar clinical findings ....

..., and how it could inform treatment. Lots of pictures.

I made it to the end of this. It seemed logical and was linked to by accounts that seem credible, but what do I know.

  • crime [she/her, any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Okay that was fascinating and makes me wish I'd exercised my bio degree more since college. The author stopped mid-thread but here's what I got out of it:

    • severe covid occurs in about 20% of cases
    • it starts normally then around day 7 things get much worse
    • this seems to be due to the development of abnormal immune complexes activating more platelets in a vicious cycle
    • platelets are part of a normal immune response usually, but COVID can infect platelet cells and cause them to kill themselves via normal programmed cell death (apoptosis), or via inflammatory cell death (necroptosis)
    • this creates platelet granules and releases other free-floating substances like serotonin in the lungs
    • normally these substances are processed by the pulmonary epithelium, but this tissue is compromised by covid infection
    • current treatment protocols, from what I gather, are not treating this vicious cycle of the excess of platelets causing tissue damage when covid kills them, causing the abnormal immune complexes to generate more platelets

    That's about as best as I could follow, lmk if I got anything wrong, especially if there are comrades more pathology minded than me

    • aramettigo [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      That was my general understanding of the thread too. Thank fuck someone with knowledge of the field thought it was interesting lol. That's a great summary.

      It would be great to see detailed breakdowns of treatment protocols in the public sphere imo. There were some basic flow chart jpegs that came out from India a couple of months ago that didn't seem legit. I'd really like to see the flow charts the doctors in the west use.