Long Covid can cause damage to multiple organs, with the lungs especially likely to show abnormalities, according to research.
The Oxford University study illustrates why long Covid can be so challenging to treat and manage, and why patients can present with such a wide range of symptoms.
The study, published in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine, looked at 259 patients who fell were admitted to hospital following catching the virus.
MRI scans revealed these patients were three times more likely to have some abnormalities in multiple organs, such as the lungs, brain and kidneys.
The researchers have argued this highlights the need for follow-up care to be multifaceted and multidisciplinary, including being focused on pulmonary and extra-pulmonary health, in other words focused on a combination of the kidneys, brain and a person’s mental health.
Five months after they were discharged, the MRI scans of their major organs showed some significant differences when compared to a group of 52 people who had never had Covid. The biggest impact was seen on the lungs, where the scans were 14 times more likely to show abnormalities.
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The scans also showed a three times greater likelihood of some abnormalities in the brain – and twice as likely in the kidneys – among people who had had severe Covid. There was no significant difference in the health of the heart or liver.
The findings are part of the Phosp-Covid study, which is looking at the long-term effects of Covid on those who were hospitalised.
Dr Betty Raman, associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at Radcliffe Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford and one of the lead investigators on the study, told the BBC it was clear that those living with long Covid symptoms were more likely to have experienced some organ damage.
She said: “The patient’s age, how severely ill they were with Covid, as well as if they had other illnesses at the same time, were all significant factors in whether or not we found damage to these important organs in the body.”
The researchers found some symptoms matched signs of organ damage revealed by the MRI scans, for example a tight chest and cough matched to abnormalities in the lungs.
However, not all of the symptoms experienced by those living with long Covid could be directly linked to what was seen on the scans.
Abnormalities in more than one organ were more common among people who had been admitted to hospital and were still reporting physical and mental health problems after they had recovered from the initial infection.
“What we are seeing is that people with multi-organ pathology on MRI – that is, they had more than two organs affected – were four times more likely to report severe and very severe mental and physical impairment,” Dr Raman said.
“Our findings also highlight the need for longer-term multidisciplinary follow-up services focused on pulmonary and extrapulmonary health (kidneys, brain and mental health), particularly for those hospitalised for Covid,” she added.
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