Study reveals organ damage in long covid patients who required hospitalisation

A recent study has uncovered significant organ damage in individuals living with long Covid, particularly those who were hospitalised for the virus. This damage appears to be correlated with the severity of the initial illness. The findings offer hope for the development of more effective treatments for long Covid and add to our understanding of this complex condition, media reports said. The study, which has been published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine, examined 259 patients who had been seriously ill with Covid and required hospitalisation.

Five months after their discharge, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of their major organs revealed notable differences compared to a control group of 52 individuals who had never contracted Covid.

MRI scans reveal abnormalities

MRI scans have shown that patients who required hospitalisation are three times more likely to exhibit abnormalities in multiple vital organs, including the lungs, brain, and kidneys. The most significant impact was observed in the lungs, with scans being 14 times more likely to detect abnormalities.

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In addition, the scans were three times more likely to reveal brain abnormalities and twice as likely to indicate kidney abnormalities among those who had experienced severe Covid.

However, there were no notable differences in the health of the heart or liver.

Organ damage

Dr. Betty Raman, a lead investigator of the study from the University of Oxford, said, "Five months after being discharged from hospital for Covid, we found more abnormalities in the lungs, brain and kidneys in those patients than in the group who had never had Covid." 

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"The patient's age, how severely ill they were with Covid, as well as if they had other illnesses at the same time, were all significant factors in whether or not we found damage to these important organs in the body," she added. 

Implications for treatment 

These findings are part of a larger study, the Phosp-Covid study, which aims to understand the long-term effects of Covid on hospitalised patients.

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"What we are seeing is that people with multi-organ pathology on MRI - that is, they had more than two organs affected - were four times more likely to report severe and very severe mental and physical impairment," Dr. Raman said adding, "Our findings also highlight the need for longer term multidisciplinary follow-up services focused on pulmonary and extrapulmonary health (kidneys, brain and mental health), particularly for those hospitalised for Covid."

A step towards understanding long Covid

Professor Chris Brightling, leading the Phosp-Covid study at the University of Leicester, explained that this research contributes to the broader effort to comprehend the array of symptoms that constitute long Covid. He stressed the importance of understanding why organ damage persists in these patients and how new tests and treatments can be developed to address long Covid effectively.