AntiThrombotic Therapy to Ameliorate Clinical Complications in Community Acquired Pneumonia

The global incidence of hospitalization due to CAP is high and associated with substantive morbidity and mortality. Thrombotic complications - including venous, arterial, and possibly microvascular - occur commonly in hospitalized patients across many etiologies of CAP. Poor outcomes may be mediated by both inflammatory and thrombotic processes leading to respiratory, cardiac, and other end organ dysfunction. There are currently no established therapies that modify the potentially maladaptive immunothrombosis pathway in CAP. Therapeutic-dose anticoagulation with heparin reduces disease progression and mortality in non-critically ill patients hospitalized with COVID-19 with an acceptable safety profile. COVID-19 shares pathogenic features, including activation of the inflammatory and coagulation cascades, with other pneumonias. Whether therapeutic-dose heparin confers similar clinical benefits in non-COVID-19 CAP is unknown.