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Covid-19 disease can cause lung damage that can be seen three months after infection with the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, according to a study of ten patients at the University of Oxford, which used a new scanning technique to detect detect injuries that are not seen by regular scans, reports BBC News, according to News.ro.
In these magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams, xenon is used to detect lung damage.
Pulmonology experts point out that these tests, which can detect long-term injuries, are very important for patients with COVID-19.
Patients inhale xenon during the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedure.
Professor Fergus Gleeson, the study coordinator, tested the technique in ten patients aged 19 to 69 years.
Eight of them had shortness of breath and were tired, three months after suffering covid-19, but none were admitted to intensive care and were not ventilated, and conventional scans found no lung problems in these patients. .
Scans revealed lung damage, areas where air does not circulate easily in the blood, in eight of the patients who were panting.
These results led Professor Gleeson to prepare a study of 100 people to see if patients who had not been hospitalized and did not have severe symptoms had the same problems.
He intends to work with general practitioners to screen people with positive COVID-19 tests in various age groups.
The purpose of the study is to determine if these people have lung damage and to make these injuries permanent or disappear over time.
“I was expecting some lung damage, but not to the level that I noticed,” he said.
The risk of serious illness and death increases dramatically in people over the age of 60.
However, if the study shows that lung injuries occur in a broader age group, including Covid-19 patients who are not hospitalized, “this will change the situation,” he said.
The lung damage identified with xenon could be one of the factors in the long-term forms of COVID-19, in which patients do not feel well for months after being infected with the new coronavirus, he estimates.
This scanning technique was developed by a group of researchers at the University of Sheffield, led by Professor James Wild, who notes that it provides a “unique” way to detect lung damage caused by COVID-19 and its sequelae. .
“In other fibrotic lung diseases, we have shown that the methods are very sensitive to this condition and we hope that these results will help to understand covid-19 lung disease,” he said.
An Oxford GP, Dr Shelley Hayles, who was involved in the development of the study, estimates that up to 10% of people who have had COVID-19 may have lung damage leading to a prolonged period of symptoms.
“Now we are in more than one and a quarter million cases, and 10% of that means a lot,” he said.
“When medical staff tell patients that they don’t know what is wrong with them and they don’t know how to fix their symptoms, it’s stressful,” he said, adding that “the vast majority of patients want a diagnosis, even if the news is not. good”. .
This is also the case for Tim Clayden, who turned 60 at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford with COVID-19, with symptoms so severe that he thought he was going to die. He has recovered, but he is still tired. He is frustrated because he is not making a full recovery.
He says he was concerned and relieved after being examined in Professor Gleeson’s study, which showed that his lungs were damaged.
“It helps you know you have a lung problem,” he says.
“I know what I have, I know what the origin is. What I don’t know, because nobody knows, is whether this is permanent or it will pass. But I would rather know than not know,” he says.
“This is interesting research and it is important that post-covid lung lesions are examined in more detail and on a larger scale, to better understand the condition in the long term,” said Director of Research and Innovation at Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation. , Dr. Samantha Walker.
“If a thorough investigation shows that lung damage occurs, this could lead to the development of a test to measure the level of lung damage caused by COVID-19, which is very important for many people with respiratory problems.”the long covid“and also to allow the development of specific treatments,” he said.
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