Long-Term COVID Symptoms: Long-Term Effects Visible on Medical Imaging, New Northwestern University Study Finds

CHICAGO – Medical images may reveal long-term damage from COVID-19 to patients’ muscles, nerves, joints, bones and other soft tissues, and imaging may lead to better guided treatment for patients, according to a new medical study published Wednesday.

The new study from Northwestern University, published Feb. 17 in the journal Skeletal Radiology, detailed how various types of imaging, including ultrasound, x-rays, MRIs and CT scans, can confirm how the body is attacking himself.

“What we found is that in some patients with COVID-19, the virus triggers an autoimmune reaction. In other words, the virus prompts the body to attack itself,” he said. said Dr Swati Deshmukh, author and assistant professor at Northwestern University. Feinberg School of Medicine.

When the body attacks itself, X-ray images, some using contrasts, can show inflamed nerves or dead tissue, the study showed.

It also shows how the impact of COVID-19 can last for months, which is what Tajma Hodzic, 31, of Albany Park is currently experiencing. She fought COVID-19 in June 2020, but its impact was long-lasting, triggering an autoimmune disease called COVID-induced psoriatic arthritis.

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“My whole body and all the joints in my body were inflamed. I couldn’t get out of bed. I couldn’t do anything independently. I couldn’t take a shower or eat on foot, ”Hodzic recalls. Pain sent her to hospital for the second time in 2020.

Hodzic explains psoriatic arthritis this way: “It’s an autoimmune disease. It’s in two parts. The piece of psoriasis is the plaques and rashes on my body. Arthritis is what we think of. , arthritis as a chronic disease. “

Radiological images require an expert to understand them. Dr Deshmukh has studied various images of other patients with COVID-19, including inflamed nerves, dead and damaged tissue, blood clots and damaged joints.

Overall, these images can help doctors make medical decisions for their patients, she said.

“Based on what the imaging shows, we can then recommend the best next steps for diagnosis, treatment, and management through this long road to recovery,” said Dr Deshmukh. “For this reason, radiologists are sometimes referred to as the physician’s physician.”

While the imagery helps explain the problem, Hodzic is still concerned about the future and what it means for her recovery, especially since she is now taking medication to control her psoriatic arthritis.

“We don’t know. We don’t know if this is something that will last as long as I live, next year, two years, five years,” she said. “Or if I can get off the drugs. That’s a pretty big unknown right now.”

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