(ANSA) - ROME, 11 JUL - Long Covid appears in 14% of people who become infected and lasts an average of four months. Some of the symptoms of the so-called 'long covid' are also recorded by fitness trackers, the bracelets that monitor vital parameters and record physical activity that have allowed to measure the disease and its dreaded long effects. This was stated in a study published by the Jama Network Open magazine.
The study compared data from 641 individuals with respiratory diseases but negative for Covid with 243 volunteers who instead had the infection. In all cases, changes in heart rate, sleep-wake rhythm and physical activity have been noted, but these parameters take much longer to return to normal in those affected by Sars-Cov-2.
On average, the resting heart rate in Covid patients does not return to normal for two and a half months, physical activity before a month while the sleep wake rhythm is regularized around day 24 from diagnosis. For those who have 'longCovid', 14% of the sample considered, the symptoms last much longer, with the heart rate remaining higher than normal for four months. According to the study, researchers explain, those with the 'chronic' form of the disease usually have more severe symptoms at first than those who do not develop it.
"Our data - says Jennifer Radin of the Scripps ResearchTranslational Institute, one of the authors. - suggest that the severity of the initial symptoms, starting with the alteration of heart rate, can be used to predict how long it will take the patient to recover from the infection". (HANDLE).