ABSTRACT
As the population of patients recovering from COVID-19 grows, post COVID-19 challenges are recognizing by ongoing evidences at once. Long COVID is defined as a syndrome with a range of persistent symptoms that remain long after (beyond 12 weeks) the acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. Studies have shown that long COVID can cause multi-organ damages with a wide spectrum of manifestations. Many systems, but not limited to, including respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous, gastrointestinal, and musculoskeletal systems, are involved in long COVID. Fatigue and dyspnea are the most common symptoms of long COVID. Long COVID-19 may be driven by tissue damage caused by virus-specific pathophysiologic changes or secondary to pathological long-lasting inflammatory response because of viral persistence, immune dysregulation, and autoimmune reactions. Some risk factors like sex and age, more than five early symptoms, and specific biomarkers have been revealed as a probable long COVID predicator discussed in this review. It seems that vaccination is the only way for prevention of long COVID and it can also help patients who had already long COVID. Managing long COVID survivors recommended being in a multidisciplinary approach, and a framework for identifying those at high risk for post-acute COVID-19 must be proposed. Possible therapeutic options and useful investigation tools for follow-up are suggested in this review. In sum, as evidence and researches are regularly updated, we provide the current understanding of the epidemiology, clinical manifestation, suspected pathophysiology, associated risk factors, and treatment options of long COVID in this review.
ABSTRACT
Since the pandemic began in December 2019, SARS-Cov2 has accentuated the wide gap and disparities in socioeconomic and healthcare access at individual, community, country, and regional levels. More than two years into the current pandemic, up to three-fourths of the patients are reporting continued signs and symptoms beyond the acute phase of COVID-19, and Long COVID portends to be a major challenge in the future ahead. With a comprehensive overview of the literature, we found that most studies concerning long COVID came from high and upper-middle income countries, and people of low-income and lower-and-middle income regions and vulnerable groups with comorbid conditions have been neglected. Apart from the level of income, there is a significant geographical heterogeneity in investigating the Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) or what we call now, long COVID. We believe that these recognizing health disparities is crucial from equity perspective and is the first step toward global health promotion.
ABSTRACT
Post-COVID-19 syndrome is an urgent and acute problem with a diverse clinical picture, including reproductive disorders. The key to minimizing Post-COVID-19 complications is timely vaccination, active treatment of covid-associated inflammation and hypercoagulation syndrome, an individual rehabilitation program to maintain gynecological health and reproductive potential of each woman. The article presents the results of the work of the of the obstetric department of the Filatov City Clinical Hospital No.15 for the period of the COVID-19 pandemic from 03/27/2020 to 03/26/2022 (inclusive). The results of the study «Post-COVID-19 syndrome in Obstetrics and Reproductive Medicine» are presented. Issues of the impact of COVID-19 on the reproductive and sexual health of women and men were brought up for discussion. A clinical case with an effective multidisciplinary treatment and diagnostic tactics of management and a personalized rehabilitation program is demonstrated. © 2022, Media Sphera Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
A substantial number of COVID-19 survivors describe ongoing symptoms long after the acute phase. This so-called post-COVID-19 syndrome or long COVID occurs irrespective of initial disease severity. Objectives: This cross-sectional study aims to describe and characterise the prevalence of persistent COVID-19 symptoms beyond three months and to evaluate the risk factors for the delayed return to the usual state of health. Methods: An electronic survey was developed, piloted, and conducted during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey consisted of questions exploring socio-demographic data, comorbidities, COVID-19 disease (diagnosis, presenting symptoms, management, and persistent symptoms), and the return to the usual state of health. Participants were users of social media platforms. We received results from 746 respondents. One hundred thirty-six responses were excluded due to a self-diagnosis of COVID-19. Respondents reporting a COVID-19 diagnosis 3 months or more prior to the study (N = 213) were included in the analysis. Predictors of the delayed return to the usual state of health were identified by logistic regression. Results: Three months or more after a COVID-19 diagnosis, almost half of the respondents, 109 (51.2%), had residual symptoms. The five most prevalent persistent symptoms were fatigue (13.6%), altered sense of smell (12.7%), muscle aches (10.3%), headache (9.9%), and body aches (8.5%). When questioned regarding the return to baseline health, 152 (71.4%) answered in the affirmative. The total number of chronic medical conditions was determined as a statistically significant predictor for the delayed return to the usual state of health. Conclusion: Three months or more after acute COVID-19 infection, 5 out of 10 survivors experienced persistent symptoms, and 3 out of 10 reported a delayed return to baseline health. Considering the overall burden of COVID-19 disease, this can pose health and socio-economic challenges. Therefore, health systems need support in managing long COVID and improving long-term COVID-19 outcomes.
ABSTRACT
Chronic COVID syndrome is characterized by chronic fatigue, myalgia, depression and sleep disturbances, similar to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia syndrome. Implementations of mitochondrial nutrients (MNs) with diet are important for the clinical effects antioxidant. We examined if use of an association of coenzyme Q10 and alpha lipoic acid (Requpero®) could reduce chronic covid symptoms. The Requpero study is a prospective observational study in which 174 patients, who had developed chronic-covid syndrome, were divided in two groups: The first one (116 patients) received coenzyme Q10 + alpha lipoic acid, and the second one (58 patients) did not receive any treatment. Primary outcome was reduction in Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) in treatment group compared with control group. complete FSS response was reached most frequently in treatment group than in control group. A FSS complete response was reached in 62 (53.5%) patients in treatment group and in two (3.5%) patients in control group. A reduction in FSS core < 20% from baseline at T1 (non-response) was observed in 11 patients in the treatment group (9.5%) and in 15 patients in the control group (25.9%) (p < 0.0001). To date, this is the first study that tests the efficacy of coenzyme Q10 and alpha lipoic acid in chronic Covid syndrome. Primary and secondary outcomes were met. These results have to be confirmed through a double blind placebo controlled trial of longer duration.
ABSTRACT
The article provides information on the Post-COVID-19 syndrome that is relevant today. Post-COVID-19 syndrome is systemic in nature and is manifested, as a rule, by persistent asthenia and neurocognitive impairment in patients. Possible mechanisms of prolonged pro-longation or the occurrence of various multiple organ complications in patients undergoing COVID-19 are considered. The ways of supporting patients with Post-COVID-19 syndrome is proposed, including for reducing significant socio-economic consequences. The analysis of the world literature was carried out, the lack of studies with a comprehensive and objective assessment of the quality of life of pregnant women and those who gave birth with COVID-19 was revealed. In order to understand the immediate and long-term consequences of the transferred new coronavirus infection in 1510 patients of the obstetric department of the Filatov City Clinical Hospital No.15 a questionnaire has been drawn up, the collection and analysis of the data obtained is being carried out. © 2021, Media Sphera Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The nature and extent of persistent neuropsychiatric symptoms after COVID-19 are not established. To help inform mental health service planning in the pandemic recovery phase, we systematically determined the prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in survivors of COVID-19. For this pre-registered systematic review and meta-analysis (PROSPERO ID CRD42021239750), we searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO to 20 February 2021, plus our own curated database. We included peer-reviewed studies reporting neuropsychiatric symptoms at post-acute or later time-points after COVID-19 infection and in control groups where available. For each study, a minimum of two authors extracted summary data. For each symptom, we calculated a pooled prevalence using generalized linear mixed models. Heterogeneity was measured with I 2. Subgroup analyses were conducted for COVID-19 hospitalization, severity and duration of follow-up. From 2844 unique titles, we included 51 studies (n = 18 917 patients). The mean duration of follow-up after COVID-19 was 77 days (range 14-182 days). Study quality was most commonly moderate. The most prevalent neuropsychiatric symptom was sleep disturbance [pooled prevalence = 27.4% (95% confidence interval 21.4-34.4%)], followed by fatigue [24.4% (17.5-32.9%)], objective cognitive impairment [20.2% (10.3-35.7%)], anxiety [19.1% (13.3-26.8%)] and post-traumatic stress [15.7% (9.9-24.1%)]. Only two studies reported symptoms in control groups, both reporting higher frequencies in COVID-19 survivors versus controls. Between-study heterogeneity was high (I 2 = 79.6-98.6%). There was little or no evidence of differential symptom prevalence based on hospitalization status, severity or follow-up duration. Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common and persistent after recovery from COVID-19. The literature on longer-term consequences is still maturing but indicates a particularly high prevalence of insomnia, fatigue, cognitive impairment and anxiety disorders in the first 6 months after infection.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The present study hypothesised that whole-body [18F]FDG-PET/CT might provide insight into the pathophysiology of long COVID. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled 13 adult long COVID patients who complained for at least one persistent symptom for >30 days after infection recovery. A group of 26 melanoma patients with negative PET/CT matched for sex/age was used as controls (2:1 control to case ratio). Qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis of whole-body images was performed. Fisher exact and Mann-Whitney tests were applied to test differences between the two groups. Voxel-based analysis was performed to compare brain metabolism in cases and controls. Cases were further grouped according to prevalent symptoms and analysed accordingly. RESULTS: In 4/13 long COVID patients, CT images showed lung abnormalities presenting mild [18F]FDG uptake. Many healthy organs/parenchyma SUVs and SUV ratios significantly differed between the two groups (p ≤ 0.05). Long COVID patients exhibited brain hypometabolism in the right parahippocampal gyrus and thalamus (uncorrected p < 0.001 at voxel level). Specific area(s) of hypometabolism characterised patients with persistent anosmia/ageusia, fatigue, and vascular uptake (uncorrected p < 0.005 at voxel level). CONCLUSION: [18F]FDG PET/CT acknowledged the multi-organ nature of long COVID, supporting the hypothesis of underlying systemic inflammation. Whole-body images showed increased [18F]FDG uptake in several "target" and "non-target" tissues. We found a typical pattern of brain hypometabolism associated with persistent complaints at the PET time, suggesting a different temporal sequence for brain and whole-body inflammatory changes. This evidence underlined the potential value of whole-body [18F]FDG PET in disclosing the pathophysiology of long COVID.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 , Adult , COVID-19/complications , Case-Control Studies , Humans , Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography , Radiopharmaceuticals , SARS-CoV-2 , Post-Acute COVID-19 SyndromeABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients sometimes experience long-term symptoms following resolution of acute disease, including fatigue, brain fog, and rashes. Collectively these have become known as long COVID. Our aim was to first determine long COVID prevalence in 185 randomly surveyed COVID-19 patients and, subsequently, to determine if there was an association between occurrence of long COVID symptoms and reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in 68 COVID-19 patients recruited from those surveyed. We found the prevalence of long COVID symptoms to be 30.3% (56/185), which included 4 initially asymptomatic COVID-19 patients who later developed long COVID symptoms. Next, we found that 66.7% (20/30) of long COVID subjects versus 10% (2/20) of control subjects in our primary study group were positive for EBV reactivation based on positive titers for EBV early antigen-diffuse (EA-D) IgG or EBV viral capsid antigen (VCA) IgM. The difference was significant (p < 0.001, Fisher's exact test). A similar ratio was observed in a secondary group of 18 subjects 21-90 days after testing positive for COVID-19, indicating reactivation may occur soon after or concurrently with COVID-19 infection. These findings suggest that many long COVID symptoms may not be a direct result of the SARS-CoV-2 virus but may be the result of COVID-19 inflammation-induced EBV reactivation.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, is leading to unknown and unusual health conditions that are challenging to manage. Post-COVID-19 syndrome is one of those challenges, having become increasingly common as the pandemic evolves. The latest estimates suggest that 10 to 20% of the SARS-CoV-2 patients who undergo an acute symptomatic phase are experiencing effects of the disease beyond 12 weeks after diagnosis. Although research is beginning to examine this new condition, there are still serious concerns about the diagnostic identification, which limits the best therapeutic approach. Exercise programs and physical activity levels are well-known modulators of the clinical manifestations and prognosis in many chronic diseases. This narrative review summarizes the up-to-date evidence on post-COVID-19 syndrome to contribute to a better knowledge of the disease and explains how regular exercise may improve many of these symptoms and could reduce the long-term effects of COVID-19.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2 , Exercise , Humans , PandemicsABSTRACT
Amid our understanding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the mechanisms involved in the causation of acute-phase coronavirus disease (COVID-19), we have come across clinical cases that have been shown to run a protracted course of COVID-19 with complex clinical findings related to organ systems in general and the CNS in particular that deserve to be addressed in the COVID long-haulers, for which the more clinically-related term chronic COVID syndrome (CCS) has been coined recently. An in-depth understanding of the mechanism that forms the basis of CCS and neurological deficits in CCS is needed as this can help in determining the management of cases of neuro-COVID, which is emerging as a less lethal but more disabling disease state. This Viewpoint highlights this syndrome, the possible pathogenetic pathways involved, and the treatment approaches that can be taken to help manage COVID long-haulers in CCS.