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Researchers funded by federal government proposed a definition of long Covid based on symptoms identified in a large study published Thursday within the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The definition is based on 12 symptoms, which mostly distinguish individuals with long-term Covid six months or more after infection from individuals who haven’t had the coronavirus.
From the very starting of the pandemic, many individuals suffered from countless, sometimes debilitating symptoms that linger long after contracting Covid-19.
Patients took the name long Covid. Scientists call this condition acute sequelae or PASC.
But there remains to be no systematic, widely accepted definition of long Covid for research that would function the idea for future tools to diagnose the disease.
“It’s really attempting to give you a specific, repeatable, specific definition of long Covid,” said Dr. Leora Horwitz, study writer and professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, involved nearly 10,000 participants in 85 hospitals, health centers and community centers in 33 states.
Greater than 8,600 patients who had Covid were compared with greater than 1,100 who didn’t have the virus.
The research is a component of a massive $1.15 billion NIH RECOVER research initiative that goals to define long Covid, understand what causes the condition, and develop treatments. RECOVER is brief for COVID Study to Speed up Recovery.
Key symptoms
Symptoms that stood out probably the most amongst participants with long Covid were lack of smell and taste, malaise after exercise, chronic cough, brain fog, thirst, palpitations, chest pain, fatigue, changes in sexual desire, dizziness, stomach problems -intestinal disorders, abnormal movements and hair loss.
The researchers assigned points based on how much each symptom differentiated participants with long-term Covid from those that didn’t catch the virus.
A participant who scores 12 or more is taken into account more likely to have Covid debt.
For instance, lack of smell and taste and malaise after exercise stood out greater than other symptoms, scoring 8 and seven, respectively. Palpitations and dizziness, that are characteristic of long Covid but that are also common symptoms of many other conditions, scored 2 points and 1 point respectively.
Future clinical use
Horwitz, the study’s writer, said the proposed definition of long Covid could help develop a method for doctors to diagnose patients.
But Horwitz said the definition presented within the study is an early draft, still needs fine-tuning and isn’t yet ready for clinical use.
Within the absence of a universally accepted definition, many Covid-19 patients have long struggled to acquire adequate healthcare, especially in the beginning of the pandemic, as some symptoms are common to other conditions, which may make diagnosis difficult.
There are not any tests that may diagnose long Covid based on blood markers. Scientists within the RECOVER project are attempting to grasp the biology underlying long-term Covid, which could potentially result in such tests in the long run.
Horwitz said the proposed definition could help create a rubric for diagnosing long-term Covid patients in a way just like lupus. There is no such thing as a single blood test that may diagnose lupus, so doctors also rely on a collection of common symptoms to find out if a patient has the condition.
Horwitz said the goal is to offer scientists with a more systematic definition that will be used to reply questions on risk aspects and the likelihood of Covid persisting after re-infection and between different variants of the virus, amongst other things.
In line with the study, biological samples from patients who developed long Covid throughout the study may very well be used to analyze the reason for the condition and potentially help find treatment and guide recruitment to future clinical trials.
Long Covid was more common before the omicron
The study also found that long Covid was more common amongst those infected before the omicron variant swept the US in December 2021.
About 17% of patients who were enrolled greater than 30 days after being infected throughout the omicron developed long Covid. In contrast, about 35% of those infected before the omicron era developed long Covid.
But patients who were re-infected throughout the omicron were at higher risk of long Covid than those that reported a single infection because the variant grew. About 21% of individuals with repeated infections who signed up after 30 days developed Covid for a very long time in comparison with 16% who caught Covid once.
Individuals who were fully vaccinated were less more likely to develop Covid for a very long time, no matter once they became infected.
About 16% of previously vaccinated participants who became infected throughout the omicron developed long Covid, compared with 22% who didn’t receive the vaccines. Prior to omicron, 31% of people that received current vaccines who became infected developed long Covid, compared with 37% of unvaccinated people.