COVID-19: 70% patients still with bad symptoms duriing half year

COVID-19: 70% patients still with bad symptoms duriing half year. After recovering from COVID-19, 70% of people with COVID-19 may still have bad symptoms half a year later.

After COVID-19 patients were discharged from the hospital, 76% of them still developed adverse symptoms in the following six months, mainly including fatigue or muscle weakness, insomnia, anxiety or depression.

This is a paper published in The Lancet last Saturday. Researchers tracked the health of 1,733 COVID-19 patients in Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital. The average age of these patients was 57 years old and 52% were men; they were treated at the hospital and recovered and discharged from January 7 to May 29, 2020. This follow-up survey was conducted 6 months after their onset ongoing.

Research published in The Lancet Research published in The Lancet

76% of patients have adverse symptoms

In this survey, 76% of patients experienced at least one adverse symptom, which is even higher among female patients. The most common symptom is fatigue or muscle weakness, 63% of patients reported this condition; at the same time, 26% of patients had sleep problems, and 23% of patients experienced anxiety or depression.

This is consistent with previous long-term follow-up results of SARS-although most SARS survivors can return to good physical condition, 33% of people said that they still have some psychological problems after one year. Researchers believe that the emergence of psychological problems is a complex result, which may be affected by events such as viral infection, immune response, and corticosteroid treatment, and may also be related to factors such as ICU hospitalization, social isolation, and stigmatization. .

Some patients have lung dysfunction

The researchers performed pulmonary function tests, high-resolution chest CT, and ultrasound on 319 patients. The results show that some patients have pulmonary dysfunction, and the proportion is related to the severity of the disease-56% of patients who need ventilators and other equipment during hospitalization have subsequent pulmonary dysfunction; patients who need oxygen in hospital , This proportion is 29%; among patients without oxygen, this proportion is 22%.

Similarly, after being infected with SARS or influenza virus, there will be long-term lung problems. The researchers explained that respiratory virus infection can induce the activation of fibroblasts, cause alveolar damage, and cause lung dysfunction. Although cortisol drugs can inhibit pulmonary fibrosis, they cannot promote the recovery of lung function.

New coronavirus pneumonia affects patients’ lung function | Lancet New coronavirus pneumonia affects patients’ lung function | Lancet

Decreased antibody concentration

Among the patients who participated in the survey, 94 participated in the LOTUS China trial (the lopinavir suppression SARS-CoV-2 trial conducted in China). The researchers collected their plasma samples during the acute phase of the onset and half a year after the onset, and found that the positive rate of COVID-19 antibodies and the titers of neutralizing antibodies have been significantly reduced. Previously, in a survey of 30,000 patients with varying degrees of new coronavirus disease, although the patient’s antibody titers were relatively stable in the first 3 months, they also showed a slight decrease after 5 months; and in asymptomatic patients , 81% of people also experienced a decrease in neutralizing antibodies during the early recovery process.

The reduction of neutralizing antibodies may increase the risk of re-infection. However, one of the researchers, Professor Wang Jianwei of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said that the data in the study only comes from 94 sets of samples, and the patients are all severe patients, so the study has certain limitations; the reduction of neutralizing antibodies will bring about What is the risk of reinfection, and how long will it take to reinfect, still needs more research.

Kidney damage in some patients

Among the patients with new coronavirus disease who participated in this follow-up, about 6% had acute kidney injury at the time of onset. Of the 822 new coronavirus patients who did not experience kidney damage during their hospitalization, 107 subsequently developed renal dysfunction; in addition, some patients developed new-onset diabetes and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular venous embolism and other diseases. The researchers explained that this may be because the proximal tubules of the kidney are rich in angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which can mediate the entry of new coronaviruses into cells, which in turn leads to the accumulation of new coronaviruses in the renal tubules, causing cytotoxicity and Inflammatory cells infiltrate and eventually cause kidney damage.

Professor Cao Bin of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital participated in the study. He said that due to the lack of non-COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized during the same period as a control group, it is currently impossible to completely attribute these subsequent symptoms to the new coronavirus pneumonia; except for anxiety and depression , Several other main symptoms are related to age.

To understand the long-term health effects of the new coronavirus, more research is needed. These possible follow-up symptoms also indicate that for severe patients, care after recovery is still very important.

(sourceinternet, reference only)

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