Anh Luu - Department of Radiology
“Is our health affected in any way after we get COVID?” Many people have had this long-standing question for the past few years, and as a result, it has become the central question of many recent studies. One particular study investigated morphological and functional changes in the lungs of children and adolescents with a past COVID-19 infection using low-field strength MRI. The cohorts within the study included 9 healthy controls and 54 participants with long COVID or who have recovered. There was a statistically significant increase in the ventilation-to-perfusion ratio in the healthy controls (81% ± 6.1) compared to the long COVID cohort (60% ± 20) and the recovered cohort (62% ± 19). The ventilation-to-perfusion ratio was also lower in patients who had COVID-19 360 days before participating in the study (41% ± 12) than in those with COVID-19 between 180-360 days before participating in the study (63% ± 18). The findings from the low-field strength MRI ultimately showed that there is lasting pulmonary dysfunction in children and adolescents in both those who recovered from COVID-19 infections and those with long COVID-19.
The advantage of using low-field strength MRI was to have clear morphologic imaging of the lung tissues compared to the other studies that relied on surveys or self-reported outcomes. The imaging suggested functional lung alterations in children and adolescents, which expands our understanding of pediatric post-COVID-19 infections. However, one limitation is the lack of longitudinal data because COVID-19 is a fairly new disease, meaning there is a lack of data on the participants over a longer period of time. Another limitation is the lower number of healthy controls compared to the cohorts with long COVID-19 or who have recovered. Nevertheless, the outcome of this study provides valuable information and warrants further investigation and research into pulmonary dysfunction in pediatric post-COVID-19 infections, especially considering the variable symptoms and the high prevalence of COVID-19 infections.
Reference:
Heiss R, Tan L, Schmidt S, et al. Pulmonary Dysfunction after Pediatric COVID-19. Radiology. 2023;306(3):e221250. doi:10.1148/radiol.221250
Edited By: Firas Batrash, Editor-in-Chief
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