Microscopic lung damage may continue in 'long COVID'; Weight-loss surgery tied to better COVID-19 outcomes

Here is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review.

Microscopic lung damage may continue in 'long COVID'

The persistent breathing issues that plague some COVID-19 survivors, known as "long COVID," may be due to microscopic processes that continue to damage lungs even after the acute infection is over, new research suggests.

The researchers studied blood and airway cells from 38 patients who still had breathing problems at least three months after they were discharged from hospital.

Compared to healthy volunteers, the airways of these COVID-19 survivors had higher numbers of immune cells that defend against viruses but can also cause damage.

They also had higher levels of proteins that are present when cell death and tissue repair are happening.

The findings, which still need confirmation in larger studies, suggest some patients have ongoing disturbances in their immune cells and damage to cells that line the airways, even several months after their initial infection and discharge from hospital, said James Harker of Imperial College London, coauthor of a report published on medRxiv ahead of peer review.

"In a small group of patients, we were able to show that the abnormalities may in fact resolve with more time," Harker said.

Weight-loss surgery tied to better COVID-19 outcomes

Surgery for obesity may have a protective effect against poor outcomes from COVID-19, data from one New York City hospital suggest.

Doctors there studied 620 patients with COVID-19, including 130 who had previously undergone so-called bariatric operations to treat their obesity, and a control group of 496 patients with obesity of similar age and gender who were eligible for these surgeries but had not undergone them.

Compared to the control group, the patients who had undergone the bariatric procedures - gastric bypass, gastric banding, or sleeve gastrectomy - were less likely to be hospitalized, less likely to need a mechanical ventilator for breathing, and less likely to die in the hospital, even though many of them were still obese.

They were also released from hospital faster, and those who were admitted to the ICU spent fewer days there, according to a report published on Sunday in Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases.

"Patients with obesity have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 with a higher risk of severe disease and death," the authors pointed out.

They added that while the study cannot prove that bariatric surgery caused better outcomes, the results suggest it might be "a protective factor against severe COVID-19 ... in the high-risk population with obesity." -- Reuters