Lung damage found in COVID dead may shed light on 'long COVID' - study

Authored by reuters.com and submitted by justme
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LONDON (Reuters) - A study of the lungs of people who have died from COVID-19 has found persistent and extensive lung damage in most cases and may help doctors understand what is behind a syndrome known as ‘long COVID’, in which patients suffer ongoing symptoms for months.

FILE PHOTO: An X-ray of a COVID-19 patient's lungs at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, U.S., July 10, 2020. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare/File Photo

Scientists leading the research said they also found some unique characteristics of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, which may explain why it is able to inflict such harm.

“The findings indicate that COVID-19 is not simply a disease caused by the death of virus-infected cells, but is likely the consequence of these abnormal cells persisting for long periods inside the lungs,” said Mauro Giacca, a professor at King’s College London who co-led the work.

The research team analysed samples of tissue from the lungs, heart, liver and kidneys of 41 patients who died of COVID-19 at Italy’s University Hospital of Trieste between February and April 2020.

In a telephone interview, Giacca said that, while his research team found no overt signs of viral infection or prolonged inflammation in other organs, they discovered “really vast destruction of the architecture of the lungs”, with healthy tissue “almost completely substituted by scar tissue”.

“It could very well be envisaged that one of the reasons why there are cases of long COVID is because there is vast destruction of lung (tissue),” he told Reuters. “Even if someone recovers from COVID, the damage that is done could be massive.”

Growing evidence from around the world suggests that a small proportion of people who have had COVID-19 and recovered from their initial infection can experience a range of ongoing symptoms including fatigue, brain fog and shortness of breath. The condition is often called “long COVID”.

Giacca said almost 90% of the 41 patients had several characteristics unique to COVID-19 compared to other forms of pneumonia.

One was that patients had extensive blood clotting of the lung arteries and veins. Another was that some lung cells were abnormally large and had many nuclei - a result of the fusion of different cells into single large cells in a process known as syncytia.

The research, published in the journal Lancet eBioMedicine, also found the virus itself was still present in many types of cells.

“The presence of these infected cells can cause the major structural changes observed in lungs, which can persist for several weeks or months and could eventually explain ‘long COVID’,” Giacca said.

Strypes4686 on November 4th, 2020 at 03:57 UTC »

I Think what scares me is that a virus can have long reaching effects that appear far down the road.

Chicken Pox for example. If you get it as a kid you get kind of sick,miss some school and get better..... But the virus stays with you and when you get older it can re-activate as Shingles and I'm told it is a rash that is painful.

I;m not saying Covid is the same way,but who knows what effects it can lead to years down the road.

altiif on November 4th, 2020 at 02:32 UTC »

As a physician this is something I keep explaining to my patients down here in FL who argue with me about COVID-19. Yes, the mortality rate is low, and the chance of you dying from it is very low. However, we do NOT know about the long term complications of this yet. Because in medicine and science we can’t simulate time (or fast forward and see what happens). There are some preliminary studies showing that there are potential long term lung and heart changes/complications that can worsen lung and heart function. I’ve already seen a few patients 45 years and younger without comorbidities (like diabetes, obesity, etc...) who are having shortness of breath and difficulties doing every day tasks like folding their laundry or going to the grocery store.

Please, wear a mask and continue to socially distance.

Beelzabub on November 4th, 2020 at 01:46 UTC »

Not good. Scar tissue has insufficient ability to build up a mucus coating, and render the patient susceptible to future lung infections as well as reduced capacity.