Filenews 22 May 2021
Of particular concern to the pneumonological community is the possibility that patients with COVID19 may develop pulmonary fibrosis. A chronic, irreversible lung disease, with effects that degrade and threaten the patient's life.
And the question that scientists are trying to answer right now is whether the drugs already being administered for the disease can prevent the chronic lung damage it causes to patients who have been hit by it because of SARS-COV-2. As stated in the FM Agency and in the broadcast of Tania H. Mandouvalou "104.9 HEALTH MYSTICS", the emeritus professor of pulmonology of the University of Athens Demosthenis Bouros is currently studying the phenomenon and is running a multi-centre study in our country, in which hospitals from all over Greece take part.
Patients are monitored after leaving the hospital, with high-definition chest CT scans, to see if the pulmonologists have escaped most of the lesions, or those left, at what rate they are, in what severity and what therapeutic intervention they should do. The exact percentage of COVID-19 patients who will develop lung fibrosis remains unknown, as a longer study period is required and as is well known, most admissions were made during the second wave. "We need to have an insight into how the incident unfolds in the three to six months after the disease, so that we can finally get results and see if fibrosis drugs should be given."
The experience we have from Sars and Mers, says the professor, shows that in the 15 years after about 3.2% of those affected had symptoms of pulmonary fibrosis. "Yes, a low percentage, if the same applies to the current pandemic, but if we take into account the extent of 3.2% of all sufferers, it is a very large number"
Which of the covid19 nurses are most at risk of developing pulmonary fibrosis
According to Mr. Buro, not all patients have the same risk of developing pulmonary fibrosis. Those most at risk are elderly people, people who have been hospitalized for a long time either in a single bed or in an ICU, (the greater the risk of hospitalization), people who have co-morbidities such as diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension and coronary heart disease. "But also people who have been hospitalized and have low lymphocytes and an increased enzyme called lph, more often have permanent lesions. Also, smokers are 1.4 times more likely to develop severe symptoms and 2.4 times more likely to enter the intensive care unit or even lose their lives."
The damage may not occur in the first place.
As for the question of whether the disability created in the lung by pulmonary fibrosis appears from the outset or over time, Mr Bouros replies: "Usually they are people who have improved, leave the hospital with oxygen and most of them after some time, another smaller, another larger do not need oxygen. But a significant proportion of them then permanently need oxygen. And that's where our focus is. To those individuals who acquire permanent and severe damage.".
SOURCE RES-BE
