Thread by @elisaperego78

#LongCovid in China 🇨🇳 🧵

👉 49% sampled patients remained symptomatic after 1 year
👉 1276 survivors from Wuhan hospital
👉 one of the longest follow up in the world, with data at 12 month and comparison with data at 6 month from the same cohort

thelancet.com/journals/lance…

Key data points and take aways
👉 30% with dyspnea at 12 month, up from 26% at 6 month
👉 26% with symptoms described as "anxiety" or "depression" at 12 month, up from 23% at 6 month
👉 12% of patients who were employed before covid couldn't go back to work

#LongCovid

👉 12% had abnormal results at six minute walking distance test, down from 14% at 6 month
👉 3 patients diagnosed with ischemic stroke, 1 stable angina
👉 Lung diffusion impairment found in 23--54% patients at 12 month (three groups of severity). No improvement from 6 month mark

👉 CT lung scan still showed ground glass opacities from covid pneumonia in a number of patients at 12 month. The anomaly improved overall from the 6 month mark. 76% of the severe patients in the cohort (29 out of 38) still had ground glass opacities at 12 month

#LongCovid

Out of 1252 patients assessed at 12 month
👉 228 had visited an outpatient clinic (18%)
👉 161 were hospitalized again (13%) (but no ICU reported)
👉 13 visited the emergency department (1%)

Yes, a few from the initial group died, but I'll discuss this in next 🧵

#LongCovid

👉 20% with symptoms described as "fatigue" or "muscle weakness" at 12 month, down from 52% at 6 month
👉 physical and mental health were clearly decreased in covid survivors vs the control group used in the study

#LongCovid

👉 12% with joint pain at 12 month (157 patients), up from 11% at 6
👉 7% with chest pain (92 patients), up from 5% at 6 month
👉 9% with palpitations (117), down from 10% at 6 month
👉 4% skin rash (55 patients), up from 3%
👉 4% myalgia (54 people), up from 3%

#LongCovid

👉 5% had headache at 12 month (61 patients) up from 2% at 6 month
👉 5% had dizziness (65 patients) down from 6% at 6
👉 11% had hair loss (135 patients) down from 22% at 6
👉 17% had sleep problems (215 patients) down from 29% at 6

Full table in paper to see all symptoms

Cytokine assays => potential evidence of long-term immune dysfunction/ inflammation done on 73 patients in
👉 acute covid
👉 hospital discharge
👉 6 month
👉 12 month
♤ overall reduction from acute to 12 month
♤ but interesting dynamics, subtypes, persistences

#LongCovid

Cytokine analysis is mostly presented in the appendix, not main paper.
As the authors mention, it's a small sample (73 people) compared to the whole group (over 1200).
Personally, I've found cytokines more relevant to pathology than extensive discussion of "anxiety"!

#LongCovid

I will discuss some limitations in the paper and some implications for #LongCovid and data collection in a follow up 🧵

I suggest to see @maureviv comments on the same article, too! Very interesting insights into long term lung pathology following SARS-CoV-2 infection