Lab tests couldn't help diagnose long COVID: study
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More than two dozen commonly available lab tests couldn't help diagnose long COVID in a study of more than 10,000 adults, leaving doctors still having to rule out other health conditions to confirm whether someone has the condition.
Why it matters: Almost four-and-a-half years after the pandemic began, one of the biggest challenges still is understanding, diagnosing and treating long COVID.
State of play: NIH-backed researchers writing in Annals of Internal Medicine found no evidence that any of 25 routinely used blood or urine tests provided a reliable measure of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, or of 12 symptoms that can persist after infection.
- The study tried to size up whether having COVID could lead to changes such as inflammation, altered blood counts or the amount of protein in the urine.
- But the tests revealed few differences between people with prior infection and those without. And when used just on infected people, they also didn't show meaningful differences between individuals who developed long COVID and those who did not.
- Researchers categorized those with long COVID through a scoring system using such symptoms as brain fog, gastrointestinal problems, dizziness and palpitations.
What they're saying: The challenge remains to find ways to "quickly and accurately diagnose long COVID to ensure people struggling with this disease receive the most appropriate care as soon as possible," David Goff of the NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute said in a statement.
- "Long COVID symptoms can prevent someone from returning to work or school, and may even make everyday tasks a burden, so the ability for rapid diagnosis is key," he added.
- Johns Hopkins researchers, in an accompanying editorial, wrote: "Clinicians are left to continue doing what we have done in the past: order tests to rule out alternative explanations rather than to diagnose long COVID."
Catch up quick: The study was part of NIH's RECOVER Initiative, a $1 billion-plus effort to define and study the long-term effects of the virus.
- The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in June developed a new definition of long COVID, noting that the lack of a consensus had led to difficulties accessing medical care, skepticism and social stigma.
