Category: Clinical Considerations
Autopsies Show COVID-19 in the Brain
(MedPageToday) Early this year, leading researchers discussed what we knew — and didn’t know — about COVID-19 and the brain. Since then, new findings have emerged about SARS-CoV-2 and the nervous system, including the results of an autopsy study that showed the presence of the virus throughout the body and brain. How can a respiratory pathogen […]
Dec 27, 2022
(Science) SARS-CoV-2 causes profound changes in the sense of smell, including total smell loss. Although these alterations are often transient, many patients with COVID-19 exhibit olfactory dysfunction that lasts months to years. Although animal and human autopsy studies have suggested mechanisms driving acute anosmia, it remains unclear how SARS-CoV-2 causes persistent smell loss in a […]
Dec 27, 2022
Long COVID: Could mono virus or fat cells be playing roles?
(AP) A British historian, an Italian archaeologist and an American preschool teacher have never met in person, but they share a prominent pandemic bond. Plagued by eerily similar symptoms, the three women are credited with describing, naming and helping bring long COVID into the public’s consciousness in early 2020.
Dec 27, 2022
Higher-Dose Steroids Upped Risk of Death in Non-Ventilated COVID-19
(MedPageToday) Higher-dose corticosteroids increased the risk of death in patients with COVID-19 and hypoxia, and who were receiving either no oxygen or simple oxygen only, compared with usual care that included low-dose corticosteroids, an analysis of the randomized RECOVERY trial showed.
Dec 27, 2022
Experiments Show Infection of Visceral Fat Cells May Contribute to Severe COVID-19
(SciTechDaily) Two types of adipocytes (fat cells) were infected in the laboratory: one obtained from human stem cells isolated from subcutaneous tissue and the other differentiated from stem cells taken from visceral fatty tissue. Experiments show that visceral fat – fat around the liver, intestines, and other organs, considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, […]
Dec 20, 2022
Blood-Related Syndrome Is Being Seen After Developing COVID-19 or Vaccination
(ContagionLive) In a study that was published in Nature Cardiovascular Research yesterday, investigators point out the increased incidence rates in POTS for people who are vaccinated or who have had COVID-19. “We show, in a cohort of 284,592 COVID-19-vaccinated individuals, using a sequence–symmetry analysis, that the odds of POTS are higher 90 days after vaccine exposure than 90 days […]
Dec 13, 2022
(Perth Children’s Hospital) PIMS-TS [also known as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children associated with COVID-19 (MIS-C)] is a rare but severe complication that occurred in around 1 in 3000 children 2-6 weeks following infection with previously circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2.1 Observed PIMS-TS incidence has been lower following Omicron infection compared with earlier waves.2, 3Consider PIMS-TS in […]
Dec 13, 2022
The Covid Pandemic’s Hidden Casualties: Pregnant Women
(NYT) Many expectant women have avoided vaccination, unaware that the virus poses great risks to both fetus and mother. Of all the groups still threatened by Covid-19 — including the elderly and the immunocompromised — it is pregnant women who seem the most unaware of the risks. Covid can kill pregnant women and can result in miscarriage, preterm births and stillbirths […]
Dec 13, 2022
Severe COVID Looks Scarily Like Old Age in The Human Brain, Study Finds
(ScienceAlert) Severe COVID-19 looks scarily like old age in the human brain, according to a postmortem analysis of 54 healthy and infected individuals. The authors of the study say their research is the first to link COVID-19 to molecular signatures of brain aging. Researchers also compared their results to an uninfected individual with Alzheimer’s disease and another group of […]
Dec 12, 2022
Feeling forgetful after COVID? Study shows the virus can affect short-term memory
(The Conversation) Although it’s well known that COVID affects the respiratory system, it’s perhaps less well known that the virus can also affect cognitive function. Many people with COVID experience a phenomenon commonly called “brain fog”, which can include problems remembering, concentrating and performing daily tasks. Brain fog can also be a symptom of long COVID, […]
Dec 6, 2022