Two different research articles out recently give graphic details of the lung damage that can be caused in both adults and children after a Covid infection. Up to half of all patients who had contracted Covid suffered from persistent pulmonary dysfunction.
Article 1: Pulmonary Dysfunction after Pediatric COVID-19
A total of 54 participants post COVID-19 infection and 9 healthy controls were included: 29 in the COVID-19 group had recovered from infection and 25 were classified as having long COVID on the day of enrollment.
Both ventilated and perfused lung parenchyma was reduced from 81±6.1% in healthy controls to 62±19% in the recovered group and 60±20% in the long COVID group.
Low-field MRI showed persistent pulmonary dysfunction in both children and adolescents recovered from COVID-19 and with long COVID.
Article 2: Lung function and radiological findings 1 year after COVID-19: a prospective follow-up
Among 488 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, 284 patients had completed the entire evaluation at 12 months.
The functional evaluation of pulmonary sequelae showed that severe patients had statistically worse levels of lung diffusion at 2 months but no between group differences were found in subsequent controls.
At 12-month follow up, however, we found impaired lung diffusion in 39.8% unrelated to severity. Radiological fibrotic-like changes at 12 months were reported in 22.7% of patients, only associated with radiological involvement at admission.
