A collaborative study led by Dr. Estefanía Nova-Lamperti of the Universidad de Concepción, Dr. Gonzalo Labarca of Harvard University, and Mauricio Hernández, of MELISA Institute, and which included the participation of researchers from leading academic institutions, sought to identify the sequelae associated with long-term pulmonary dysfunction (L-PDD) in patients with COVID-19. The study was published in Frontiers in Medicine.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, various types of sequelae have been identified in sustained patients recovered from SARS-CoV-2. To refer to this phenomenon, researchers have used the terminology of post-acute COVID-19, post-COVID-19 syndrome or long COVID-19. Likewise, to be classified as such, the symptoms must not be attributable to other causes.
Among the symptoms identified, several pulmonary manifestations have been reported. For example, alteration in computed tomography (CT) scan after infection has been associated with the need for invasive mechanical ventilation during the acute phase of the disease, while a reduction in carbon monoxide diffusion capacity (DLCO) is one of the most reported lung function disturbances 6 months after COVID-19. Similarly, severe acute COVID-19 has been associated with an increased risk of long-term pulmonary sequelae, including pulmonary structural abnormalities and impaired O2 diffusion.
Based on this, Dr. Estefanía Nova-Lamperti, explained that “the objective of our study was to identify post-COVID-19 pulmonary sequelae, in the short and medium term, in a cohort of Chilean patients prior to the appearance of vaccines on the market, and to determine the inflammatory pathways at the cellular and molecular level, associated with sustained lung failure