Successful Application of Argatroban During VV-ECMO in a Pregnant Patient Complicated With ARDS due to Severe Tuberculosis: A Case Report and Literature Review

Severe tuberculosis during pregnancy may progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and venovenous (VV) extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) should be considered if conventional lung-protective mechanical ventilation fails. However, thrombocytopenia often occurs with ECMO, and there are limited reports of alternative anticoagulant therapies for pregnant patients with thrombocytopenia during ECMO. This report describes the first case of a pregnant patient who received argatroban during ECMO and recovered. Furthermore, we summarized the existing literature on VV-ECMO and argatroban in pregnant patients. A 31-year-old woman at 17 weeks of gestation was transferred to our hospital with ARDS secondary to severe tuberculosis. We initiated VV-ECMO after implementing a protective ventilation strategy and other conventional therapies. Initially, we selected unfractionated heparin anticoagulant therapy. However, on ECMO day 3, the patient’s platelet count and antithrombin III (AT-III) level declined to 27 × 10 3 cells/μL and 26.9%, respectively. Thus, we started the patient on a 0.06 μg/kg/min argatroban infusion. The argatroban infusion maintenance dose ranged between 0.9 and 1.2 μg/kg/min. The actual activated partial thromboplastin clotting time and activated clotting time ranged from 43 to 58 s and 220–260 s, respectively, without clinically significant bleeding and thrombosis. On day 27, the patient was weaned off VV-ECMO and eventually discharged. VV-ECMO may benefit pregnant women with refractory ARDS, and argatroban may be an alternative anticoagulant for pregnant patients with thrombocytopenia and AT-III deficiency during ECMO.