"Just stay at home" was lonely and terrifying

Developing a Blood Cell-Based Diagnostic Test for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Using Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is characterized by debilitating fatigue that profoundly impacts patients' lives. Diagnosis of ME/CFS remains challenging, with most patients relying on self-report, questionnaires, and subjective measures to receive a diagnosis, and many never receiving a clear diagnosis at all. In this study, a single-cell Raman platform and artificial intelligence are utilized to analyze blood cells from 98 human subjects, including 61 ME/CFS patients of varying disease severity and 37 healthy and disease controls. These results demonstrate that Raman profiles of blood cells can distinguish between healthy individuals, disease controls, and ME/CFS patients with high accuracy (91%), and can further differentiate between mild, moderate, and severe ME/CFS patients (84%). Additionally, specific Raman peaks that correlate with ME/CFS phenotypes and have the potential to provide insights into biological changes and support the development of new therapeutics are identified. This study presents a promising approach for aiding in the diagnosis and management of ME/CFS and can be extended to other unexplained chronic diseases such as long COVID and post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, which share many of the same symptoms as ME/CFS.

Short-term complications after minimally invasive retromuscular ventral hernia repair: no need for preoperative weight loss or smoking cessation?

PURPOSE

Obesity and smoking are associated with postoperative wound complications following open hernia repair. However, with the advancements in minimally invasive surgical techniques, we hypothesized that obese and/or smoking patients undergoing minimally invasive repairs were not subjected to an increased risk of postoperative surgical complications. As opposed to nonobese and/or nonsmoking patients.

METHODS

This was a retrospective cohort study including patients undergoing minimally invasive retromuscular repair at a single university hospital. Patients were divided into two groups according to exposure; obese vs. nonobese and smoking vs. nonsmoking. One month postoperatively, all patients underwent clinical follow-up. The main outcome was surgical site occurrence (SSO).

RESULTS

A total of 94 patients were included, undergoing both laparoscopic (n = 32) and robotic (n = 62) retromuscular repair. Of these, 7.7% of the obese patients had SSO when compared with 19.1% of the nonobese patients. A total of 17.2% of the nonsmokers had SSO compared with 13.3% of the active smokers. Of the nonsmokers, 12.5% developed seroma and 6.2% hematoma postoperatively, the corresponding numbers were 13.3% and 0% among the active smokers. After multivariable analysis, there was no significant risk factors for developing postoperative SSO.

CONCLUSION

There was no association between obesity or smoking and surgical complication in patients undergoing minimally invasive retromuscular repair. If the results of the current study are confirmed, patients who are unable to obtain weight loss or smoking cessation may be offered minimally invasive retromuscular ventral hernia repair without inducing an increased risk of short-term complications.

A global systematic analysis of the occurrence, severity, and recovery pattern of long COVID in 2020 and 2021

Importance:

While much of the attention on the COVID-19 pandemic was directed at the daily counts of cases and those with serious disease overwhelming health services, increasingly, reports have appeared of people who experience debilitating symptoms after the initial infection. This is popularly known as long COVID.

Objective:

To estimate by country and territory of the number of patients affected by long COVID in 2020 and 2021, the severity of their symptoms and expected pattern of recovery

Design:

We jointly analyzed ten ongoing cohort studies in ten countries for the occurrence of three major symptom clusters of long COVID among representative COVID cases. The defining symptoms of the three clusters (fatigue, cognitive problems, and shortness of breath) are explicitly mentioned in the WHO clinical case definition. For incidence of long COVID, we adopted the minimum duration after infection of three months from the WHO case definition. We pooled data from the contributing studies, two large medical record databases in the United States, and findings from 44 published studies using a Bayesian meta-regression tool. We separately estimated occurrence and pattern of recovery in patients with milder acute infections and those hospitalized. We estimated the incidence and prevalence of long COVID globally and by country in 2020 and 2021 as well as the severity-weighted prevalence using disability weights from the Global Burden of Disease study.

Results:

Analyses are based on detailed information for 1906 community infections and 10526 hospitalized patients from the ten collaborating cohorts, three of which included children. We added published data on 37262 community infections and 9540 hospitalized patients as well as ICD-coded medical record data concerning 1.3 million infections. Globally, in 2020 and 2021, 144.7 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 54.8–312.9) people suffered from any of the three symptom clusters of long COVID. This corresponds to 3.69% (1.38–7.96) of all infections. The fatigue, respiratory, and cognitive clusters occurred in 51.0% (16.9–92.4), 60.4% (18.9–89.1), and 35.4% (9.4–75.1) of long COVID cases, respectively. Those with milder acute COVID-19 cases had a quicker estimated recovery (median duration 3.99 months [IQR 3.84–4.20]) than those admitted for the acute infection (median duration 8.84 months [IQR 8.10–9.78]). At twelve months, 15.1% (10.3–21.1) continued to experience long COVID symptoms.

Conclusions and relevance:

The occurrence of debilitating ongoing symptoms of COVID-19 is common. Knowing how many people are affected, and for how long, is important to plan for rehabilitative services and support to return to social activities, places of learning, and the workplace when symptoms start to wane.

Exploring Online Peer Support Groups for Adults Experiencing Long COVID in the United Kingdom: Qualitative Interview Study

BACKGROUND

Long COVID is an emerging public health concern. A growing number of individuals are experiencing prolonged multifaceted health challenges and accompanying social impacts after COVID-19 infections. Support services in the United Kingdom remain insufficient and fraught with complexity. Responding to persistent gaps in care, patients joined forces in online peer support groups. However, little is known about how these groups impact long COVID patients and their lived experiences of the condition.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to explore the roles that online peer support groups take on, and the impact they have on patients experiencing and recovering from long COVID in the United Kingdom. In doing so, this study aims to identify ways to inform future long COVID care, including online peer support and broader long COVID care structures.

METHODS

I conducted 11 semi-structured interviews virtually on Zoom in July 2021. Participants had long COVID, were UK-based, and used long COVID online peer support groups. Topics discussed in interviews included what led participants to these groups, experiences within them, and feelings about the roles that the groups took on. I analyzed the results through manually conducting thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Long COVID online peer support groups had numerous roles, significantly impacting users. I identified 5 themes and 13 subthemes through thematic analysis. The identified themes were: (1) filling professional care gaps, (2) societal awareness, (3) engagement behavior, (4) diversity (5) social connections. Given the void of professional support, those experiencing long COVID gained some benefit from these groups. However, participants emphasized notable concerns about the all-encompassing roles these groups embody and speculated over potential improvements.

CONCLUSIONS

If employed appropriately, online peer support groups could be immensely beneficial for patient wellbeing, beyond simply filling gaps in long COVID care. However, it appears many groups take on more than they can manage and become potentially harmful. Through prioritizing patient voices, long COVID care could be restructured to maximize peer support's benefits within broader care structures.