- People with Long COVID are at a higher risk for cardiovascular, renal, and pulmonary (CRP) outcomes, according to a large observational study published in Journal of the American Heart Association. The study was a retrospective study and assessed more than 2.6 million people who developed COVID-19, comparing about 158,000 people who had been diagnosed with Long COVID with the larger group of controls. Researchers assessed 15 types of CRP outcomes including pulmonary embolisms, strokes, kidney disease, and more. They found a greater risk of worse outcomes with Long COVID for younger people compared to younger people without Long COVID, than the differences in risks for older people.
- NASEM recently announced a new study on the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection across all age groups and its implications for the military. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study will specifically assess the scientific evidence of neurocognitive impacts, as well as how the infection affects “military force readiness.” The committee currently has 14 provisional appointees, who will do literature reviews and conduct public meetings on COVID-19 and Long COVID to produce a report for the government. Public feedback is open on the project and committee members until September 14th.
- A new trial for myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) will study Intermittent Hypoxia-Hyperoxia Treatment (IHHT). Researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark will enroll 104 female participants in the randomized trial and compare the treatment, which delivers short cycles of low and high oxygen for 22–40 minute sessions, to a placebo. They hypothesize that the treatment may help the body adapt to oxygen related stress. The study will use the Short Form-36 Health Survey as its primary endpoint, measuring quality of life. The study is not yet recruiting.
- Researchers behind RECOVER-VITAL, the National Institutes of Health’s clinical trial testing Paxlovid for Long COVID, have formally published their results in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, after sharing them on clinicaltrials.gov this spring. The study found that both 15-day and 25-day Paxlovid courses did not help improve symptoms. While the study collected samples from participants to investigate how the antiviral impacted potential viral persistence, analysis of those samples is “pending” and “will be published” in future studies, the researchers wrote. For more on these results and other RECOVER trials, see Betsy’s story from May.
