Early immune pathology and persistent dysregulation characterise severe COVID-19
Publication: Medrxiv
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15 January 2021
Summary
It may be possible to predict which patients will go on to develop severe or long-term COVID symptoms (sometimes known as ‘long COVID’).
Cambridge researchers looked at blood samples taken regularly over three months from more than 200 people, ranging from COVID-19 patients who were severely ill and needed ventilation to asymptomatic NHS staff who had tested positive for the virus but showed no symptoms.
The immune systems in patients who were the sickest showed early evidence of an abnormal inflammatory response, leading to a flood of immune cells which damaged healthy cells as well as the virus. Finding inflammation early in the blood samples and at the point of diagnosis could help doctors to identify and predict patients who will develop severe COVID-19.
The results have been released as a pre-print, read the full news story.