Title : Pericarditis is the most frequent post-COVID-19 complication and colchicine is a drug of choice
Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: The post-COVID-19 syndrome is a subacute chronic condition affecting certain recovered patients from the acute viral infection. The most post-covid symptoms resolve after 3 months, but some patients experience continuation of fatigue, shortness of breath, palpitations, cough and muscle chest pain. That patients fall into category of long-covid syndrome.
METHOD: The prospective clinical randomized study of long-covid patients were included in the study. Three groups of recovered patients were formed with mild (Group I) , moderate (Group II) and severe (Group III) clinical manifestation during acute covid-19 infection. Diagnostic procedures included the electrocardiogram, transthoracic echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a selected patients with risk factors and comorbidities analyzed. Total of 192 post-covid-19 patients were included in this study.
RESULTS: The average duration of post-covid-19 symptoms was 16 weeks. Total of 106 females (55,2 %)and 86 (44,8%) males were observed with average age of 57,3 years. The most frequent manifestation was mild to moderate subacute pericarditis in 21,8% patients in average, but with a significant difference in all three groups. The most often pericarditis was seen in a group III (77,4%), followed by group II (18,6,0%)%) and insignificant in a group I (4,0%). All patients received colchicine therapy that proved to be effective in all. MRI was performed in 6 patients and no myocarditis was found.
CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that Pericarditis is the most underlying condition in a long covid-19 period and colchicine could play a role on the therapy and prevention of recurrent pericarditis in the management of complications associated with post-COVID-19 syndrome.
Key words: Long-Covid 19, Pericarditis, Colchicine
Audience Takeaway:
- Post-COVID-19 is real life and require objective investigation and therapy. This lecture will help audience to gain knowledge about underlying conditions that are responsible for the long-COVID-19 symptoms. The fatigue is not only un-important symptom. There must be explanation for that.
- Currently, practitioners do not treat specifically post-Covid-19 symptoms and do not use specific required therapy. They will now use the colchicine and other medications, with a strong anti-inflammatory property, in a these recovered, but long-covid patients.
- Other faculty could use this research and our experience to expand their research or teaching as well.
- This approach provide a practical solution to a Long-Covid-19 problem that could simplify or make a practitioner daily practice more efficient.
- This will assist to the accuracy of a design of new research.
- The most benefit goes to patients that will recover rapidly from the long-covid.
