{"id":69546,"date":"2023-04-12T16:06:06","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T22:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=69546"},"modified":"2024-08-06T08:12:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T14:12:31","slug":"long-covid-is-real-major-study-aims-to-untangle-causes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/long-covid-is-real-major-study-aims-to-untangle-causes\/","title":{"rendered":"Long COVID is real \u2013 and complex. A major study aims to untangle its causes."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Long COVID\u2019s symptoms are diverse \u2013 and unsettlingly common. The UCHealth Post-COVID Clinic alone has seen nearly 1,200 patients so far. The University of Colorado School of Medicine site of the national RECOVER long-COVID study is working to understand the roots of long COVID and tailor treatments for it. Photo: Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rarely has a clinical trial\u2019s name better signaled its ultimate aims. But then, a billion-dollar study deserves a first-rate acronym, too.<\/p>\n

RECOVER<\/a> is the name. It stands for Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery. Its focus is on understanding long COVID \u2013 a wide swath of maladies whose roots lay in infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus that swept the planet starting in late 2019 and continues to mutate and spread, if much less aggressively than during the pandemic. Each infection or reinfection opens the door to long COVID (also called post-acute sequelae SARS-CoV-2 infection, or PASC). We may have moved on<\/a> from COVID, but COVID has not moved on from us.<\/p>\n

The number of long-COVID cases is hard to nail down, but it\u2019s big. One review, which considered 194 studies totaling 735,000 participants, found that, \u201con average, at least 45% of COVID-19 survivors, regardless of hospitalization status, went on to experience at least one unresolved symptom\u201d an average of four months after infection. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says<\/a> 19% of those who reported having COVID-19 in the past have long-COVID symptoms. Another review<\/a> estimates that 10% to 30% of non-hospitalized cases, 50% to 70% of hospitalized cases, and 10% to 12% of vaccinated cases end up with long COVID. Considering that as many as<\/a> 94% of U.S. residents have gotten the coronavirus at some point, these percentages yield millions of people.<\/p>\n

The University of Colorado School of Medicine is one of 86 medical centers around the country participating in the four-year, $1.15 billion National Institutes of Health RECOVER study<\/a>. It has enrolled more than 12,000 people so far. The CU School of Medicine site at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital<\/a> on the Anschutz Medical Campus<\/a> (UCH) has signed up about 240 patients and counting.<\/p>\n

Many health conditions under the long COVID umbrella<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Dr.
Dr. Kristine Erlandson, an infectious disease specialist, leads the CU School of Medicine site for the RECOVER trial at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RECOVER will probably be the largest U.S. trial of its kind, says Dr. Kristine Erlandson<\/a>, the infectious disease specialist who leads the study\u2019s Colorado site. The study\u2019s size and its inclusion of a control group of those who never had COVID-19 are important, she says. RECOVER\u2019s leaders have also made an effort to enroll populations that have been underrepresented in many previous COVID studies, such as Hispanic\/Latino populations and rural residents. While the study is ongoing, Erlandson says it has enormous potential to help future long-COVID patients<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be very important to the field,\u201d she said. \u201cI think there will be, eventually, thousands of papers that leverage this RECOVER cohort to really advance our knowledge of long COVID.\u201d<\/p>\n

Improving the diagnosis and treatment of long COVID will be important to millions of people. The disease best known for its spread by the lungs can also impact a wide range of bodily systems over time: the immune system, the brain and neurological system, the gastrointestinal tract, the heart and circulatory system, and the reproductive system among them.<\/p>\n

A recent, comprehensive review<\/a> listed a few of the \u201cmultiple adverse outcomes\u201d under the long COVID umbrella: cardiovascular, thrombotic (blood clot-related), and cerebrovascular (brain-related) disease, type 2 diabetes, myalgic encephalomyelitis\/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME\/CFS<\/a>) and dysautonomia<\/a> (especially postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS<\/a>). That\u2019s just a small selection of a long list<\/a> of documented<\/a> long-COVID symptoms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some are easier to treat than others. Some may last for years. Some, such as ME\/CFS and dysautonomia, which renders up to 75% of those with the severe form of the disease unable to work, \u201care expected to be lifelong,\u201d as the authors put it.<\/p>\n

Long COVID broke into five maladies<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Critical-care medicine specialist Dr. Sarah Jolley<\/a>, medical director of the UCHealth Post-COVID Clinic, is co-author of a forthcoming RECOVER-based study that assigns many of the long COVID-related maladies into five domains, she says. They include:<\/p>\n