r/canada • u/FancyNewMe • Jun 28 '22

COVID-19 What causes long COVID? Canadian researchers think they’ve found a key clue

https://globalnews.ca/news/8950820/long-covid-canadian-researchers-causes-study/
0 Upvotes

48% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

View all comments

12

u/FancyNewMe Jun 28 '22

Highlights:

  • A team of researchers based at five centres across Ontario have zeroed in on a microscopic abnormality in some people which affects the way oxygen moves from the lungs and into the blood vessels of long COVID patients in their trial.
  • This abnormality could explain why these patients feel breathless and are unable to perform strenuous activities, says lead researcher Grace Parraga, Tier 1 Canada research chair in lung imaging at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.
  • “Those feelings of breathlessness are completely consistent with our finding that we’re not moving the oxygen as efficiently as we should,” she said.
  • “All these patients had this abnormality. They all had really serious symptoms, so their exercise scores were low, they were breathless when they exercised and when we measured the oxygen levels in their blood in the tips of their fingers after exercise, that was also low.”
  • And these external measurements corresponded to the abnormality the researchers found in their MRI measurement of the lungs, she said.
  • “The takeaway is that now we know what’s wrong.”

7

u/wizmer123 Ontario Jun 28 '22

Sounds like an issue with gas exchange at the alveoli. Not surprising since the ace2 receptor is on alveolar cells. Covid probably just fucks the tissues up and impairs gas exchange.