{"id":187521,"date":"2025-11-18T18:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T18:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/187521\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T18:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T18:02:13","slug":"8-trajectories-for-long-covid-harvard-gazette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/187521\/","title":{"rendered":"8 trajectories for long COVID \u2014 Harvard Gazette"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of patients\u00a0have\u00a0developed\u00a0long COVID,\u00a0a chronic condition that involves a range of symptoms,\u00a0including\u00a0fatigue, brain fog, dizziness,\u00a0and\u00a0palpitations,\u00a0that persist for at least three months after infection. In a new analysis of adult\u00a0participants\u00a0in an initiative called\u00a0Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery, or RECOVER, Mass General Brigham researchers identified eight different trajectories that\u00a0long COVID can take, depending on\u00a0severity, duration, and whether symptoms\u00a0improve or worsen.\u00a0Their findings are published in\u00a0Nature Communications<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study addresses an urgent need to define the differing\u00a0long COVID trajectories,\u201d\u00a0said senior author\u00a0Bruce Levy<\/a> of Mass General Brigham\u2019s\u00a0Department of Medicine and Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and the Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic at Harvard Medical School.\u00a0\u201cOur findings will help determine what resources are needed for clinical and public health support of individuals with long COVID and will also inform efforts to understand long COVID\u2019s biological basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n10.3%<\/p>\n

Of patients overall had long COVID symptoms 3 months after infection\n<\/p>\n

To\u00a0identify\u00a0long COVID trajectories, the researchers\u00a0followed 3,659\u00a0adult\u00a0participants in the RECOVER initiative\u00a0who\u00a0first\u00a0contracted\u00a0SARS-CoV-2\u00a0during the\u00a0Omicron variant\u00a0era, after Dec. 1, 2021. The participants completed a comprehensive symptom\u00a0questionnaire\u00a0in three-month intervals up to 15 months post-infection to track changes over time.\u00a0Then, the researchers\u00a0identified\u00a0patients with long COVID\u00a0using the\u00a0long COVID research index<\/a>, a symptom-based tool\u00a0that was previously developed by Mass General Brigham researchers.<\/p>\n

Overall,\u00a010.3 percent of patients had long COVID symptoms three months after infection, and 81 percent of these patients continued to experience persistent or intermittent symptoms a year later. Female patients\u00a0and those\u00a0who had been hospitalized\u00a0with an\u00a0acute infection were likelier to develop persistently\u00a0severe\u00a0long COVID\u00a0symptoms.<\/p>\n

The researchers\u00a0identified\u00a0eight different long COVID trajectories. Some of these trajectories included\u00a0persistently severe symptoms,\u00a0intermittently severe symptoms,\u00a0gradually improving symptoms,\u00a0gradually worsening symptoms, and mild symptoms that\u00a0only appeared\u00a0after 15 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe variability we identified will enable future studies to evaluate risk factors and biomarkers that could explain\u00a0why patients vary\u00a0in time\u00a0of\u00a0recovery, and\u00a0help\u00a0identify potential therapeutic targets,\u201d\u00a0said first\u00a0author\u00a0Tanayott Thaweethai<\/a>, an assistant professor of medicine at the Medical School and an\u00a0assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.<\/p>\n

This research was funded by\u00a0the National Institutes of Health.
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