Using a functional MRI scan where patients inhale foreign gas, researchers can see in real time what is going on inside the lungs. Preliminary results show that the symptoms are related to tiny abnormalities that affect the way oxygen is exchanged from the lungs to the red blood cells. Having participants inhale the gas during the MRI scan allowed the researchers to see how the 500 million airbags in the lungs supply oxygen to the blood. In the case of patients with long-term CoVID, oxygen uptake was reduced compared with healthy volunteers. “It had all been about nine months since the infection and we were wondering if we could find the source of their symptoms because they were all very symptomatic and their quality of life scores were really very poor,” said Grace Parraga, a professor and Grade 1 Research Center. Canada in Lung Imaging for Transformation Results at Western Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. “What we see in patients with long-term COVID-19 who are symptomatic is that they actually have normal lung function. So the breathing tests prescribed by the doctors were normal and the CT scans were normal. But the MRI told us. a completely different story “. Research also shows that there does not appear to be a difference in the severity of the disorder between patients who needed treatment for COVID-19 and those who recovered from the disease at home. “Now that we have what is happening, where it is happening and when it is happening, we can understand why and who,” Parraga said. “We gave all the data we got to these individual patients and we also gave it to their colleagues at [the hospital] “And that really equipped these doctors with new information so that they could make treatment decisions for these patients.” Patients were selected from the London Health Sciences Center (LHSC) and St. Joseph’s Health Care, who had persistent shortness of breath for more than six weeks after infection. The study participants inhaled foreign gas while inside an MRI scan so that researchers could see what was going on inside the airbags of the lungs, which supply oxygen to the blood. (Paulina Wyszkiewicz / Western University) Among those involved in the study is Alex Kopacz, a London Olympian who was hospitalized with the virus in 2021. “I was on oxygen for almost two months after COVID and it took me almost three months to get to a place where I could go for a walk without gasping for breath,” Kopacz said in a statement. “The message for me is that we need to remember that this virus can have very serious long-term consequences, which are not insignificant. In my case, before I got sick, I did not think it would really affect me. “ Researchers are now working on a one-year follow-up to better understand the results of the study. The $ 1 million study included five centers across Ontario, including the LHSC, St. Louis. Joseph’s Health Care, Lakehead University, McMaster University, Toronto Metropolitan University and Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.
