Ontario researchers have taken the first step in solving the mystery of the long COVID. They then plan to relocate to Canada, including two hospitals in British Columbia with technology to replicate it.
Grace Paraga’s phone rings outside the hook on Tuesday with calls from long-term COVID patients across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom
Paraga is the lead researcher in a new study that identified a minor abnormality in the lungs of long-term patients with COVID that could contribute to the prolonged difficulty breathing they may experience after infection.
Following the announcement of their findings, Paraga said people approached her excitedly seeking further clarification on their long-term COVID symptoms. Paraga, a professor at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University and the Level 1 Department of Past Imaging Research in Canada, said the response was very reassuring.
“We do this as scientists in the hope of helping people,” she said.
The human lungs, the organ being studied in the study, contain 2,400 kilometers of airways, Paraga explained. Scattered throughout Canada, these airways would be long enough to start in Vancouver and reach as far as Thunder Bay.
“It’s accumulated in you to allow you to live,” Paraga said.
There are 500 million air sacs at the end of these airways. When you inhale, oxygen travels in these small air sacs and bounces on red blood cells. As you exhale, carbon dioxide pops out of these cells and is sent by your body.
Using a very high spatial resolution MRI method, the research team was able to measure the function of the top of these 500 million air sacs.
What they found was an abnormally low signal of red blood cells in the lungs of these long-term patients with COVID, which affected their ability to breathe.
Paraga said the tree of blood vessels in the lungs was probably blocked by small, microscopic clots.
“It’s something you can’t see with a chest x-ray, a CT scan or any other method,” she said.
The study was conducted at five centers in Ontario that have this specific MRI technology, and observed 34 long-term patients with COVID.
Paraga said her team is now focusing on transferring their work to other centers in Canada that also have the technology, such as BC Children’s Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital. Paul in Vancouver.
Long-awaited proof
So far, Paraga has said that COVID has long been an annoying infection. Standard clinical tests are unable to detect this little evidence that something is wrong.
“People [with long COVID] look normal. “The chest x-ray looks normal, the CT scan looks normal,” she said.
“This is the first proof that something is not normal.”
The results of the study serve as a relief, Paraga said. As researchers, she said it was encouraging to find something they understood and was in line with their previous understanding of lung infections.
“If you’re not feeling well, you can’t go to the mailbox and think right, you’re starting to wonder if it’s in your head,” she said. “I think the doctors were worried and that really prompted us to go hunting.
Paraga said he believes the study gives people hope, knowing that this anomaly is something that doctors can understand and treat.
Next steps: treatment
The discovery is only the first step in the journey to treat long-term COVID patients experiencing shortness of breath. Following the publication of the study, Paraga said her focus is now shifting to determine why and how the factors for the infection.
“We identified what, where and when. [Now]clinical people will use this information to guide treatment, ”she said.
Paraga said he plans to continue monitoring study participants “as far as they want to come to the lab.” With their participation, she hopes to answer questions such as why certain people are susceptible to prolonged COVID and what will happen to these patients in the long run.
Meanwhile, Paraga and her team take some time to reflect on their success in a unique way after sharing their findings with the study participants.
“We created a cloud of words from their emails back to us.” [with] words like understanding, thank you, congratulations, thoughtful, ”she said. “It was very humbling and satisfying to see that.”
“It simply came to our notice then. To help people. ”
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