As per the outcomes of a study published in Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, edoxaban was found to be an effective and safe therapy for the management of acute pulmonary embolism in the COVID-19 setting. A retrospective analysis was carried out for determining edoxaban's clinical performance to treat pulmonary embolism in hospitalized people suffering from coronavirus infection.

At hospitalization, pulmonary embolism was detected via computer tomography (CT) and was treated with edoxaban after initial parenteral therapy (low molecular weight heparin /fondaparinux). The clinical outcomes were assessed between the patients with and without acute distress respiratory syndrome (ARDS) at hospitalization and between those with and without CT confirmed pulmonary embolism resolution.

Overall, 50 participants were incorporated. The mean follow-up period was 42.5±10 days. No baseline differences were reported between people with ARDS (30%) and people without ARDS at hospitalization. Patients with pulmonary embolism resolution (84%) were younger, had a shorter duration of fondaparinux therapy and length of hospitalization in comparison with those without resolution of pulmonary embolism, as shown in Table 1:

In total, two participants witnessed major bleedings. At multivariate assessment, the only predictor of pulmonary embolism resolution was the time to edoxaban switch (Hazard Ratio: 0.92). Thus, the combined anticoagulant approach of low molecular weight heparin/fondaparinux followed by edoxaban appears to be an effective and safe therapy for acute pulmonary embolism in the clinical contest of SARS-CoV-2.