Long-Covid: Physicians may have made a breakthrough in researching the causes
Created: 2022-02-20 06:22
By: Momir Takac
Many people suffer from long-term effects after a corona infection.
In their search for the cause of Long Covid, researchers may have found a significant clue.
Badalona - In the course of the corona pandemic, scientists have been able to gain many important insights into Sars-CoV-2.
However, one key question remained largely unanswered: How does the coronavirus affect the body in the long term?
Does it cause lasting damage to the human organism?
There is no answer yet.
Many people suffer from Long Covid after a corona infection.
According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), ten to 20 percent of people still feel the effects of the disease months later.
Common symptoms of Long Covid include fatigue, dizziness and poor concentration.
Connections have not yet been explored.
Corona research: In a study, doctors suspect a connection between Long Covid and nerve damage
But now a Spanish research team could have discovered the cause.
A new study by the doctors at the Badalona University Hospital gives hope.
"Most long-Covid patients with vagus nerve dysfunction symptoms exhibited a number of significant, clinically relevant, structural and/or functional changes in their vagus nerve," the researchers write in a report.
The patients had nerve thickening on the vagus nerve, difficulty swallowing and impaired breathing.
"Thus, our results to date point to vagus nerve dysfunction as a central pathophysiological feature of Long Covid," the researchers concluded.
Long Covid: Is damage to the vagus nerve the cause?
The vagus nerve is one of the most important nerves in the body and is responsible for numerous bodily functions.
It runs from the brainstem in the head through the neck into the chest to the abdomen.
Important functions are the control of heart rate, breathing and digestion.
The vagus nerve is important to the functioning of almost every internal organ.
The Spanish researchers believe that Long Covid symptoms result from damage to the vagus nerve.
The team has examined 348 patients so far.
They found that two-thirds of them had at least one symptom that indicated a damaged vagus nerve.
22 subjects, including 20 women, were examined in more detail.
They are more likely to be affected by Long Covid, a previous study shows.
Of the 22 patients examined in more detail, 19 even had at least three signs of a damaged vagus nerve.
Long Covid: Subjects had symptoms for an average of 14 months
The most common symptoms were diarrhea (73 percent), increased heart rate (59 percent), dizziness, difficulty swallowing, voice disorders (45 percent each) and drop in blood pressure (14 percent).
On average, the symptoms lasted 14 months.
In six patients, changes in the vagus nerve could even be visualized on ultrasound.
The doctors emphasized that their study of long-term consequences after a coronavirus infection will continue.
They want to present further findings on this in April at the European Congress for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Portugal's capital Lisbon.