Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the novel virus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

The disease has now spread worldwide, causing a pandemic.

According to Klok et al., complications such as coagulopathy have previously been reported in critically ill COVID-19 patients, with around 30% of critically ill COVID-19 patients developing thrombotic complications.

Without appropriate assessment and treatment, physicians may not be able to improve outcomes in these patients, even with the use of invasive therapies such as mechanical ventilation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Assessment of coagulopathy, especially hypercoagulopathy, is difficult to achieve through conventional coagulation tests, which include measurement of platelet count, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), prothrombin time (PT), d-dimer levels, and fibrinogen levels.

Viscoelastic hemolytic assays (VHA), such as thromboelastography (TEG), (TEG®; Haemonetics Co., Braintree, MA, USA) and rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM), (ROTEM®; TEM International FZC, Munich, Germany) are more reliable for the detection of coagulopathy than conventional coagulation tests, but are not commonly used.