Nerve Damage May Explain Some Cases of LONG COVID, U.S. Study Suggests

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Fri Mar 4, 2022, 02:20 PM - Edit history (1)

- CBC, Canada, Health. March 2, 2022. - 60% of patients in small study had nerve damage, which may point to new treatments. Thomson Reuters. -

A small study of patients suffering from persistent symptoms long after a bout of COVID-19 found that nearly 60 per cent had nerve damage possibly caused by a defective immune response, a finding that could point to new treatments, researchers have found. The new U.S. study involved in-depth exams of 17 people with so-called long COVID, a condition that arises within three months of a COVID-19 infection and lasts at least two months.

"I think what's going on here is that the nerves that control things like our breathing, blood vessels and our digestion in some cases are damaged in these long COVID patients," said Dr. Anne Louise Oaklander, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a lead author on the study published in the journal Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation.

As many as 30 per cent of people who have COVID-19 are believed to develop long COVID, a condition with symptoms ranging from fatigue, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, cognitive difficulties, chronic pain, sensory abnormalities and muscle weakness. Oaklander and colleagues focused on patients with symptoms consistent with a type of nerve damage known as peripheral neuropathy. All but one had had mild cases of COVID-19, and none had nerve damage prior to their infections. After ruling out other possible explanations for the patients' complaints, the researchers ran a series of tests to identify whether the nerves were involved.

"We looked with every single major objective diagnostic test," Oaklander said. The vast majority had small fibre neuropathy, meaning damage to small nerve fibres that detect sensations and regulate involuntary bodily functions such as the cardiovascular system and breathing. - Findings consistent with earlier study: The findings are consistent with a July study by Dr. Rayaz Malik of Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar that found an association between nerve fibre damage in the cornea and a diagnosis of long COVID...https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/long-covid-nerve-damage-study-1.6369906
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- ETA: Brain fog and no cure in sight: Locals on what it's like to live with long COVID, NPR, March 4, 2022,
https://www.npr.org/local/305/2022/03/04/1084484337/c

[babylonsister]

1. Thanks for this; I have a friend with long covid

so will share.

[Martin68]

2. A Washington Post article about the topic describes Senator Tim Kaine's symptoms of "tingling" arms

and legs continuing a year after his infection. Sound like nerve damage to me.

[SunSeeker]

3. Oh wow. Had no idea he had long covid. Was he vaxxed when he got covid?

I have not heard of anyone who has been vaxxed and gotten long covid.

[Martin68]

4. The vaccine had not yet been approved when Kaine came down with Covid.

Kaine developed flu-like symptoms in March 2020 in the earliest wave of the pandemic in the United States, when coronavirus tests were not even widely available, and then tested positive for coronavirus antibodies in May 2020. Most of his symptoms, “very mild,” went away within weeks. But the nerve tingling never stopped.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/02/kaine-long-covid-bill/

[SunSeeker]

7. So sad.

[BeckyDem]

5. My greatest fear.

K&R

[appalachiablue]

6. Don't need it, sounds like hell