A study by Sheffield and Oxford researchers using a cutting-edge method of imaging has identified persistent damage to the lungs of COVID-19 patients at least three months after they were discharged from hospital, and for some patients even longer.
This damage was not detected by routine CT scans and clinical tests, and the patients would consequently normally be told their lungs are normal.
Further early research by the team has shown that patients who have not been hospitalised with COVID-19 but who are experiencing long-term breathlessness may have similar damage in their lungs, and a larger study is needed to confirm this.
In a paper published in Radiology, the world’s leading radiology journal, the researchers from the University of Oxford and University of Sheffield said that hyperpolarised xenon MRI (XeMRI) scans had found abnormalities in the lungs of some COVID-19 patients more than three months – and in some cases, nine months - after leaving hospital, when other clinical measurements were normal.
sheffield.ac.uk/news/study-...
Radiology. Study Paper:
