{"id":3432,"date":"2022-04-01T01:52:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T01:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/study-examines-the-effect-of-long-covid-on-lung-health-medical-news-today\/"},"modified":"2022-04-01T01:52:48","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T01:52:48","slug":"study-examines-the-effect-of-long-covid-on-lung-health-medical-news-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/04\/01\/study-examines-the-effect-of-long-covid-on-lung-health-medical-news-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Study examines the effect of long COVID on lung health – Medical News Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

All data and statistics are based on publicly available data at the time of publication. Some information may be out of date. Visit our <\/em>coronavirus hub<\/a> and follow our <\/em>live updates page<\/a> for the most recent information on the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/em>
People with COVID-19 often experience various symptoms<\/a><\/hl-trusted-source> depending on the severity of their illness. Symptoms appear 2\u201314 days after exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and last 1\u20134 weeks on average.
It has been difficult to estimate the prevalence of long-term symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection, partly because diagnostic criteria remain unclear.
However, last year, the Office for National Statistics<\/a> published data suggesting that long-term symptoms occur in 7\u201318% of people who experienced symptomatic COVID-19.
These long-term effects after COVID-19<\/a><\/hl-trusted-source> are known as long COVID or post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC).
PASC can range from mild to debilitating, with new symptoms arising or evolving long after the initial infection.
Dr. Brett M. Elicker, M.D.,<\/a> a clinical professor in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco, discusses radiology findings in an editorial<\/a> that accompanies the recent research.
Dr. Elicker explains that the long-term effects of viral pneumonia depend on the direct injury that the virus causes and the body\u2019s immune reaction to the virus. Damage to the lungs occurs in two patterns:
He was responding to a study that used CT<\/a><\/hl-trusted-source> scans to image the lungs of people with persistent symptoms following confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The scans showed air trapping, which indicates small airway disease.
Air trapping refers to pockets of air that become trapped in the lung after breathing out. In other words, they prevent the individual from exhaling completely. Air trapping is common in conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.
CT scans of people who have experienced COVID-19 also indicate ground glass opacity (GGO)<\/a>, suggesting DAD.
Researchers from the University of Iowa recently conducted a study to understand the long-term effects of COVID-19 on lung function. They published their findings in the journal Radiology<\/a>.<\/em>
The study enrolled 100 adults with a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who remained symptomatic for more than 30 days following the diagnosis, with a control group of 106 healthy participants.
In all, 67% of participants with PASC had not needed hospitalization for COVID-19 \u2014 the authors refer to these participants as ambulatory. Additionally, 17% required hospitalization, and 16% needed intensive care during the initial infection.
The most common persistent PASC symptoms were: <\/strong>
Alongside a chest CT scan, the researchers performed several pulmonary function tests<\/a><\/hl-trusted-source> to measure how well the lungs worked. These tests included:
The study found that participants in the hospitalized and ICU groups had significantly lower FVC, FEV1, TLC, and DLCO than those in the ambulatory group. The ambulatory group\u2019s FVC, FEV1, and RV were similar to the healthy control group.
Participants received a chest CT scan within a median of 75 days from diagnosis.
The average percentage of the total lung that air trapping affected was significantly higher in the ambulatory (25.4%), hospitalized (34.6%), and ICU (27.3%) than the healthy controls (7.2%). <\/strong>
Also, the average percentage of the total lung with GGO was significantly higher in the hospitalized (13.2%) and ICU groups (28.7%) than the ambulatory group (3.7%), but higher in the ambulatory group than the healthy controls (0.06%).
Dr. Alejandro P. Comellas, M.D.,<\/a> senior author and professor of internal medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and the Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, spoke with Medical News Today<\/em>.
He stated that the strengths of the trial were its design and inclusion of only nonvaccinated participants, which reduced confounding effects.
However, it was a small single-center trial that involved only the initial SARS-CoV-2 variant, limiting the generalizability of results to subsequent variants.
Dr. Comellas stated, \u201cThe results provide evidence, quantitatively and qualitatively, of airway damage many months after the initial SARS CoV-2 infection, including patients who were initially treated in the ambulatory setting.\u201d
\u201cDespite expected pulmonary functions tests in the ambulatory patients,\u201d Dr. Comellas continued, \u201c30% of their lungs had evidence of small airway disease.\u201d As he explained, for some of the participants, this was more than 6 months after the initial infection.
In the companion editorial, Dr. Elicker elaborates:
\u201cThis paper suggests that airway obstruction and post-organizational pneumonia [or] DAD fibrosis contribute to persistent symptoms after [SARS-CoV-2] infection with the contribution of airways disease higher in the outpatients, and the contribution of OP [or] DAD greater in the patients admitted to ICU.\u201d
\u201cLonger-term studies assessing the clinical and imaging manifestations 1\u20132 years after the initial infection are needed to fully ascertain the permanent manifestations of post-COVID fibrosis.\u201d<\/strong>
What do we know about the long-term neurocognitive impact of COVID-19, and what are we yet to learn? This Special Feature and podcast investigate<\/a>
As part of our 'COVID-19, 1 year on' series, Amy Murnan writes a Through My Eyes perspective about her experience of living with long COVID for 1 year.<\/a>
What is long COVID? Read on to learn about what it is and how long recovery takes. This article also covers the symptoms, causes, and diagnosis of\u2026<\/a>
In a recent BMJ seminar, six specialists discussed long COVID: how to define it, what characterizes it, and how doctors might help people recover.<\/a>
A study shows that 32% of people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were still experiencing at least one COVID-19 symptom 6 weeks after diagnosis.<\/a>
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All data and statistics are based on publicly available data at the time of publication. Some information may be out of date. Visit our coronavirus hub and follow our live updates page for the most recent information on the COVID-19 pandemic.People with COVID-19 often experience various symptoms depending on the severity of their illness. Symptoms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}