September 20, 2022 — Children and adolescents who have either recovered from COVID-19 or have long COVID show persistent lung damage on MRI,
Children and adolescents who have either recovered from COVID-19 or have long COVID show persistent lung damage on MRI, according to a study published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Since emerging in late 2019, it has killed more than 5 million people worldwide. The lungs are the primary target for the virus.
Study of the disease’s long-term effects has accelerated as the number of COVID survivors climbs and more people are diagnosed with long COVID. The World Health Organization defines long COVID as involving symptoms that persist for a minimum of 12 weeks and other factors, such as symptoms that result in a new health limitation or worsening of a pre-existing underlying medical condition.
The nature of the post-acute phase of the infection is poorly understood in younger people. CT has shown persistent damage to the lungs in adults, but CT uses ionizing radiation and has limited diagnostic value in children, where lung changes due to COVID-19 are less pronounced.
“We conceived this study when the evidence for long- or post-COVID cases in adults was growing,” said study senior author Ferdinand Knieling, M.D., specialist in pediatrics and adolescent medicine from the departments of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at University Hospital Erlangen in Erlangen, Germany. “This was also when the first patients with unspecific symptoms were seen in our department, and parents started to ask about an association with a prior infection.”
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