AUTHOR=Grach Stephanie L. , Dudenkov Daniel V. , Pollack Beth , Fairweather DeLisa , Aakre Chris A. , Munipalli Bala , Croghan Ivana T. , Mueller Michael R. , Overgaard Joshua D. , Bruno Katelyn A. , Collins Nerissa M. , Li Zhuo , Hurt Ryan T. , Tal Michal C. , Ganesh Ravindra , Knight Dacre T. R. 

TITLE=Overlapping conditions in Long COVID at a multisite academic center

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2024.1482917

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2024.1482917

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Background</title><p>Many patients experience persistent symptoms after COVID-19, a syndrome referred to as Long COVID (LC). The goal of this study was to identify novel new or worsening comorbidities self-reported in patients with LC.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>Patients diagnosed with LC (<italic>n</italic> = 732) at the Mayo Long COVID Care Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and Jacksonville, Florida were sent questionnaires to assess the development of new or worsening comorbidities following COVID-19 compared to patients with SARS-CoV-2 that did not develop LC (controls). Both groups were also asked questions screening for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), generalized joint hypermobility (GJH) and orthostatic intolerance. 247 people with LC (33.7%) and 40 controls (50%) responded to the surveys.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>In this study LC patients averaged 53 years of age and were predominantly White (95%) women (75%). The greatest prevalence of new or worsening comorbidities following SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with LC vs. controls reported in this study were pain (94.4% vs. 0%, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), neurological (92.4% vs. 15.4%, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), sleep (82.8% vs. 5.3%, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), skin (69.8% vs. 0%, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), and genitourinary (60.6% vs. 25.0%, <italic>p</italic> = 0.029) issues. 58% of LC patients screened positive for ME/CFS vs. 0% of controls (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001), 27% positive for GJH compared to 10% of controls (<italic>p</italic> = 0.026), and a positive average score of 4.0 on orthostatic intolerance vs. 0 (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001). The majority of LC patients with ME/CFS were women (77%).</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>We found that comorbidities across 12 surveyed categories were increased in patients following SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our data also support the overlap of LC with ME/CFS, GJH, and orthostatic intolerance. We discuss the pathophysiologic, research, and clinical implications of identifying these conditions with LC.</p></sec>