Long COVID-19 people visiting the Chicago — Northwestern Medical Clinic do not require hospitalization, but have a median of 15 months after their first illness, headache, dizziness, malaise, and brain fog. I was still experiencing symptoms such as. ..
The study included 52 patients seen at the Northwestern Neuro COVID-19 Clinic between May 2020 and November 2020. These patients initially showed mild COVID-19 symptoms. Dr. Igor Coralnick, the lead author of the study, said the study was the first to examine the neurological symptoms of people who did not need to be hospitalized for COVID-19 over such a long period of time.
The study was published on Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.
“… it’s important because long COVIDs never go away,” said Koralnik, Head of Neuroinfection and Global Neurology in Northwestern Medicine and Director of the NeuroCOVID-19 Clinic.
According to the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, researchers believe that long COVIDs can affect up to 30% of people infected with COVID-19. This means that an estimated 24 million people in the United States may be experiencing prolonged symptoms. Vaccination can reduce the risk of developing long-term COVID if infected with COVID-19.
“This is something people need to know because it affects the vast population of the United States,” says Koralnik.
In this study, the frequency of patients experiencing symptoms such as brain fog, numbness / tingling, headache, dizziness, blurred vision, tinnitus, and malaise from the first appointment to the time the questionnaire was answered 6-9 months later. There was no significant change in.
Loss of taste and smell decreased over time, but fluctuations in heart rate and blood pressure, and gastrointestinal symptoms increased during follow-up.
The average age of the participants was 43, with nearly two-thirds being women. More than two-thirds were vaccinated, but they were not yet available at the time of their first illness, so they were vaccinated after they began to experience COVID-19 symptoms. Studies have shown that vaccines do not appear to exacerbate or improve cognitive function or fatigue.
In this study, researchers contacted the first 100 unhospitalized patients who visited a clinic in the northwest, and 52 researchers completed follow-up questionnaires. These patients had a variety of experiences with long COVIDs, some primarily experiencing taste and smell loss, while others, such as Emily Café, suffered from debilitating symptoms.
Caffee said in the first stages of the pandemic that he was most likely infected with COVID-19 while traveling for a boating competition. She had pain in her body, fatigue, shortness of breath, pain in her chest, and foggy thoughts. She feels sick, but she wasn’t sick enough to have to be hospitalized.
After her first seizure at COVID-19, she returned to her then job as a physiotherapist at Northwestern University, but her symptoms soon worsened and she became ill for three months from May 2020. rice field. ..
She suffered from fatigue, brain fog, palpitation, vision problems, foot and neck pain, and relentless anxiety. She called this a “disastrous buffet”.
Wheaton’s 36-year-old cafe said: “If I knew I had to take a shower, follow the recipe, or walk downstairs to receive emails, that was all I could do all day long.”
In August 2020, she returned to work and slowly increased her time. By September 2020, when she saw Coralnick, she said she felt about 50% better. Coralnick told her to continue what she was doing and slowly resume her activities, she said.
The feedback was validated, given that she had previously been told that her problem was related to anxiety. When she got sick, the test wasn’t widespread yet, so she never tested positive for COVID-19.
“I just heard from them, the doctor … what I experienced was real, and anxiety wasn’t the only thing that matters to me,” she said.
Caffee, who currently works at PT Solutions in Bloomingdale, said she now feels that about 95% are back to normal. “This has taken more than two years of my life and I feel suffering in so many ways, but I’m fortunate to be able to experience it without major complications.”
Like Caffee, about half of the patients in this study have never tested positive for COVID-19. However, it is important to include Koralnik, like Caffee, as many people may have been infected with COVID-19 based on their symptoms before the tests were readily available. I said there is.
“These patients have experienced a lot of rejection and stigma, and they are often women in their 40s,” Koralnik said. “There are millions of people who couldn’t be tested in 2020, but they continued to have long-term COVID symptoms.”
Koralnik acknowledges that this study has limitations. Although this study is based on only 52 patients, Coralnick says it’s important for researchers to share what they’ve learned so far, rather than waiting long to study more people. He said he felt it. Also, this study is not representative of all people with long COVIDs who do not require hospitalization, as it is made up of people who choose to visit and participate in the study in the northwestern clinic. About 90% of the study participants were Caucasian.
Still, Koralnik said Northwestern has adopted an open door policy for clinics. This meant that the patient did not have to be referred to another doctor or presented with proof of insurance. The clinic has also seen people from all over the country by making both face-to-face appointments and telemedicine visits.
The results of the new study are a follow-up to the Northwest study, published in March 2021, in which 85% of long COVID-19 people who do not require hospitalization have four or more impacts on quality of life. I discovered that I had experienced neurological symptoms. In some cases, their cognitive ability.
“This study is the first study to begin in the difficult situation of the blockade of Chicago and provides very unique and important data about this patient population,” said Koralnik. “We hope that it will help clinicians take care of these patients, and further research will be done.”
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