Chicago researchers report findings in long-Covid study

CHICAGO - Northwestern Medicine has released their findings from a new study about long-Covid and its impact on survivors.

Researchers found that neurological symptoms of long-Covid differ based on the severity of the initial Covid-19 infection.

Patients who were previously hospitalized for Covid-19 pneumonia showed broad cognitive impairment, while those with mild initial infections that didn't require hospitalizations mainly saw difficulty with attention tasks.

The findings come from a study of the first 600 Covid long-haulers who were evaluated at Northwestern’s Covid-19 Neuro Clinic.

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Patients reported an average of seven neurologic symptoms, with 91 percent of those patients seeing at least four.

"It's not a one size fits all. Long-Covid is a big umbrella indicating persistent symptoms after Covid-19. But we see in this study very important differences in two groups of patients. One group that was previously hospitalized with severe Covid-19 pneumonia often requiring mechanical ventilation in the ICU, and the second group that has never bee hospitalized," said Dr. Igor Koralnik, Chief of Neuroinfectious Diseases at Northwestern Medicine.

Northwestern researchers say they plan to keep studying long-Covid across the adult lifespan to determine if factors like age of infection or particular strains of Covid play a role in the long-term impact.

About 30 million people in the U.S. have dealt with long-Covid, which is roughly one-third of Covid survivors.