PET/MR findings in long COVID patients linked to long-term cardiopulmonary diseases
Certain imaging findings in long COVID patients may be indicative of the development of long-term cardiopulmonary disease, according to new data.
The new study is published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine and is one of the largest and most extensive on long COVID to date. Its results suggest that abnormal findings on cardiopulmonary PET/MRI should be considered a risk factor for long-term complications in COVID patients.
“Unfortunately, the long-term consequences of long COVID remain unknown,” said Maria Giovanna Trivieri, MD, associate professor of medicine cardiology and associate professor of radiology at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York, said in a statement on the findings. “In this study we sought to use advanced cardiopulmonary imaging to assess for evidence of cardiac and lung abnormalities, vascular injury, and inflammation in patients with long COVID.”
The research compared imaging data from two groups—one of patients who continued to experience cardiopulmonary symptoms, like shortness of breath, for 9 to 12 months after recovering from their initial infection and another of individuals who recovered from severe COVID but did not complain of lingering symptoms. All participants underwent 18F-FDG PET/MRI and dual-energy CT (DECT) of the lungs, in addition to plasma protein analysis. Follow-up data for up to four years were available for researchers to examine.
On imaging, 57% of the patients who continued to struggle with cardiopulmonary symptoms displayed increased myocardial (24%), pericardial (22%), periannular (11%) and vascular (30%) uptake. What’s more, 90% of these patients had abnormal findings on DECT, such as pulmonary infiltrates (67%) and abnormal perfusion (59%). None of the aforementioned were evident in the control group.
Plasma protein analyses appeared to corroborate these findings. Symptomatic long COVID patients with abnormal imaging also had atypical plasma protein profiles.
At participants’ four-year follow-up assessments, symptomatic patients with abnormal imaging were significantly more likely to have developed heart failure, mitral regurgitation and pulmonary hypertension.
“The results of the study should raise awareness in the clinicians to elicit a proper history that includes prior COVID infection and long COVID symptoms,” suggested Ana Devesa, MD, PhD, former postdoctoral fellow at Biomedical and Molecular Imaging Institute, in New York. “If a temporal link is identified between symptoms and timing of infection, further evaluation might be appropriate.”
Learn more about the findings here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.