Persistent COVID can have the potentially long-lasting effect of small airway disease in which the lungs do not completely empty of air, which would occur regardless of the initial severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
An investigation published in the journal Radiology and signed by the University of Iowa (USA) studied this trapping of air in the lungs among patients recovered from the COVID-19but were persistently affected.
The director of the study, Alejandro Comellas, pointed out that they still have to carry out research to establish whether it is a transitory or permanent effect.
Various reports indicate that more than half of adults who overcome SARS-CoV-2 experience persistent COVID and, of them, 30% present respiratory symptoms such as cough and dyspnea.
The team compared the results of various medical tests among a group of 100 patients with persistent COVID and 106 healthy people.
People who have passed the COVID-19 they had a mean age of 48 years and, of them, 67 did not require hospitalization, 17 did and 16 went through the ICU.
Air trapping occurs in many obstructive airway diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
In the group of patients who had COVID-19 the mean percentage of the total lung affected by air trapping ranged from just over 25% in the outpatient group to almost 35% in the hospitalized group, compared with only 7.2% in healthy people.
Air trapping persisted in eight of the nine participants who underwent imaging more than 200 days after diagnosis.
Analysis of the tests with the help of a type of artificial intelligence known as supervised machine learning showed signs of small airway disease.
Although this disease is not completely understood, data suggest that it may be related to inflammation or remodeling of the small airways that prevent air from being exhaled from the lungs.
“For the first time, we are describing small airway disease in this population of covid-19 patients with persistent symptoms”Comellas said.
The scientist stressed that “Something is happening in the distal airways related to inflammation or fibrosis that is giving us a signal of air trapping.”
The team wants to continue to follow the patients in the study to see how many improve, recover or persist with the problem.
If a part of them still have small airway disease, “then we have to think about the mechanisms behind it”, Comellas added.
It could be, he considered, something to do with inflammation, which is reversible, or with a scar, which is irreversible, and then “We have to look at ways to prevent further progression of the disease.”
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Source: Gestion
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