Thread by @LongCovidNL

Yesterday on “@Hollandsezaken” on the Dutch long covid study using CPET and muscle biopsies:

@RobWust @VU_FBW



#PEM #longcovid

English transcript below (google translate)

Professor van Vugt: “Just by looking at the muscle biopsies, you see that the firmness of the muscle is different. The firmness of the muscle has to do with the connective tissue, and there are now many theories about that.”

Full transcript (google translated)

Professor Michele van Vugt: "I think the most important thing is that we keep looking to see if we can do something for these people. And we have to go one step further to be able to solve it really well together."

"Is it puzzling?"

"At the moment it is unfortunately still a bit puzzling. But we are a step further. And I think that is - promising is not the right word because I don't want to give hope that is not there yet -

but what we can see is that there is an essential difference in the muscle biopsies of the lung covid patients compared to the healthy controls."

"What happens to the Lung Covid patients? Scientists worldwide are conducting research into, among other things, tiny clots that can be seen in the blood of people with long-term complaints. Professor van Vugt and her colleagues examine the muscles before and after exercise"

van Vugt: "And just by looking at the muscle biopsies, you see that the firmness of the muscle is different. The firmness of the muscle has to do with the connective tissue, and there are now many theories about that.

- There is a theory of "do we have microclots after all?, those small blood clots that are also in the smallest blood vessels, so that there is no flow of blood - that is a theory",
- Second theory is "is there an accumulation of waste that cannot be disposed of?"

- Or is there autoimmunity?

And all these 3 aspects are currently being looked at as we speak. We will keep looking - if at all possible - until we find it.”

“In the Netherlands, about 10 million euros has been made available for research. Not nearly enough, critics say. In addition, there would be too much research into the well-being of people - patients receive endless questionnaires - and too little into the biomedical side.”

Full episode Hollandse Zaken:

maxvandaag.nl/programmas/tv/…