Preliminary results show symptoms are related to microscopic abnormalities that affect how oxygen is exchanged from the lungs to red blood cells.
Microscopic abnormalities show issues with oxygen getting into red blood cells in the lungsResearchers at Western University analyze MRI images of study participants' lungs.
Having participants inhale the gas while being scanned by the MRI allowed researchers to see how the 500 million air sacs in the lungs deliver oxygen to the blood. In the case of long-COVID patients, the transition of the oxygen was depressed compared to healthy volunteers. "Now that we have the what's happening, where it's happening and when it's happening, we can figure out the why and the who," said Parraga. "All the data that we acquired in these individual patients we gave to them, and we also gave to their collaborators at [the hospital] ... and that really armed those physicians with new information so that they could make treatment decisions for these patients.
Among those who participated in the study include Alex Kopacz, a London Olympian who was hospitalized with the virus in 2021.