He’s starting two small studies to look at the neurological complications in detail, and plans to bring in dozens patients for batteries of tests to figure out what might be going on. He suspects some of the burning sensations reported in patients could be an atypical form of Guillain-Barre syndrome or a peripheral neuropathy.
One study will focus on Covid-19 patients whose symptoms are similar to a disease called myalgic encephalomyelitis, a mysterious virus-linked illness better known as chronic fatigue syndrome.
“The effects on the brain are under-recognized at the moment,” Nath said. Finding out what is going on “is all we are thinking about right now. This is the number one top priority.”
For some long-haul patients, exhaustive testing has turned up specific abnormalities. Rachelle McCready, a 57-year-old critical care nurse educator in London, Ontario, was hospitalized for eight days in mid-April after coming down with the coronavirus.
She never needed a ventilator or other extraordinary measures. Still, for weeks after she got out of the hospital, she was so exhausted and out of breath she spent most of the day in bed, too tired to do much more than make coffee or do the laundry.
“It feels like you have been hit by a truck, the truck then reversed and hit you again, and you are recovering from that,” says McCready. “I never would have thought it would still be impacting my life here at month five.”
Even after she recovered enough to return to work on a part-time basis in June, she noticed subtle neurological symptoms including trouble finding words and learning new procedures. After an echocardiogram, a heart nuclear medicine scan, a chest x-ray, and other tests came back negative, doctors finally ordered a lung CT scan in early July.
It found subtle damage to the airway walls in her lungs, a condition linked to lung infections and often found in cystic fibrosis patients. Doctors connected it with the coronavirus and, since then, her doctors prescribed oral steroids and asthma inhalers that have reduced her symptoms significantly, she said.
“People need to know this really isn’t quick for some people,” she says. “I think we are going to be seeing the effects of this for years.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.