The long covid makes it difficult for millions to return to normal life. Yet medical efforts to understand how best to help these patients are developing slowly. A Canadian research study has reportedly found an answer to why some people continue to experience symptoms of Covid months after contracting the disease.
According to a Global News report, a team of researchers focused on a microscopic abnormality in the way oxygen moves from the lungs and blood vessels of long-term patients with Covid-19 in their experience.
The abnormality may explain why some patients feel short of breath and are unable to perform strenuous activities after Covid. The study evaluated about 34 patients over about nine months – 12 who were hospitalized with Covid-19 and 22 others who were not hospitalized. Patients still experience a number of debilitating symptoms.
The researchers used an MRI technique developed by Western University and found small branches of air tubes in the lungs that move into the red blood cells of their patients.
“Red blood cells are responsible for transporting oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. “Any disturbance in the flow of this oxygen to the red blood cells will trigger the brain to say ‘breathe more’ – which leads to a feeling of shortness of breath,” said lead researcher Grace Paraga.
All 34 of the patients in the study had problems with the level of oxygen absorbed by their red blood cells. Therefore, all patients had breathing problems.
“All of these patients have had this anomaly. They all had really serious symptoms, so the results of their exercises were low, they were breathless when they trained, and when we measured the levels of oxygen in their blood at their fingertips after training, it was also low, “the study notes.
The research team acknowledges that the sample size of this peer-reviewed study is small and therefore these results should be considered as “research and generation hypotheses”.
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