Rachel L Eddy, David Mummy, Shuo Zhang, Haoran Dai, Aryil Bechtel, Alexandra Schmidt, Bradie Frizzell, Firoozeh V Gerayeli, Jonathon A Leipsic, Janice M Leung, Bastiaan Driehuys, Loretta G Que, Mario Castro, Don D Sin, Peter J Niedbalski
BACKGROUND: Long COVID impacts ∼10% of people diagnosed with COVID-19, yet the pathophysiology driving ongoing symptoms is poorly understood. We hypothesised that 129 Xe magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could identify unique pulmonary phenotypic subgroups of long COVID, therefore we evaluated ventilation and gas exchange measurements with cluster analysis to generate imaging-based phenotypes. METHODS: COVID-negative controls and participants who previously tested positive for COVID-19 underwent 129 XeMRI ∼14-months post-acute infection across three centres...
February 8, 2024: European Respiratory Journal