Long-Term Covid May Cause Microscopic Lung Damage Routine Tests Can't Detect

Lung damage that cannot be detected with routine tests has been found in long covid-19 patients, which explains the difficulty in breathing in most patients. Scientists are worried about this finding because microscopic damages can affect the lungs and cause more harm to the patient even after treatment.

Abnormalities Detected in the Lungs of Covid Patients

The coronavirus caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is a highly infectious virus and can be easily contracted when an uninfected person comes in contact with an infected person or by coming in contact with the surface on which an infected person might have made contact with.

Although covid is known to slowly affect so many organs in the body, these abnormalities found in patients long after contracting the virus has come to the awareness of researchers as it cannot be easily detected by routine tests.

These findings were gathered from research done on about 36 covid-19 patients and during the research, the theory on microscopic damages of the lungs caused by covid-19 was confirmed, according to The Guardian.

Shortness of breath is one of the symptoms of the virus, this involves a puffed or winded feeling while breathing, like a feeling when you can't catch your breath, and its mostly seen in long term covid patients.

This is because the major symptoms of covid involve shortness of breath as covid normally attacks the human lungs once infected.

Common Symptoms in Long Covid Patients

These new reports on lungs damages haven't been fully confirmed but have shone more light on the underlying health problem for covid-19 patients that involve the lungs though its relationship with other symptoms like tiredness or changes in breathing patterns hasn't been fully confirmed yet.

Dr. Emily Fraser, a consultant at Oxford University Hospital and the study's co-author said: "It is the first study to demonstrate lung abnormalities in [people with long Covid] who are breathless and where other investigations are unremarkable. It does suggest the virus is causing some kind of persistent abnormality within the microstructure of the lungs or in the pulmonary vasculature," as reported by IBTimes.

Breathlessness is one of the most acute covid symptoms and is commonly paired with fever and cough. This symptom mostly shows between day 5 to 8 and is very scary, meaning it needs more attention.

Does the Lungs of a Covid Patient Appear Normal?

Lung damage has been a threatening symptom that is quite dangerous even after covid-19 and that is why more are still yet to be discovered.

More research are still to be done on these findings as scientists work earnestly to discover more damages that can be caused by the virus and possible means to detect them early.

According to Clara Steves, a clinical senior lecturer at King's College London, this finding would be of great help to patients that might still have trouble breathing even after treatment and probably help in detecting the damages early.

"They suggest that the efficiency of the lung in doing what it is meant to do � exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen may be compromised, even though the structure of the lung appears normal," she said in a report in Hopkins Medicine.

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