Hermann, M, Lisch, C, Gerth, R et al. · IDCases · 2024 · DOI
This study describes one patient with long COVID who experienced severe fatigue, worsening after exertion, pain, and neurological symptoms. Researchers used a special microscopy technique to examine the patient's blood and found tiny clumps of blood cells and proteins (microaggregates) that shouldn't normally be there. After the patient received blood-thinning medications and antiviral treatment, these clumps dissolved and their symptoms significantly improved.
This study identifies a potential blood-based biomarker (microaggregates) that could help diagnose and monitor post-COVID syndrome and potentially ME/CFS, conditions that currently lack objective biological markers. The observation that anticoagulant therapy improved symptoms provides a testable hypothesis for a pathophysiological mechanism and potential treatment avenue worth investigating in larger populations.
This single case report cannot prove that microaggregates cause post-COVID symptoms or that anticoagulant therapy will help other patients. The clinical improvement could be coincidental or attributable to other factors. No control group or comparison populations were studied, so it remains unclear whether microaggregates are specific to post-COVID or present in other conditions.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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