Medical imaging has revealed that COVID-19 can, in some cases, “make the body attack itself”, marking the first glimpse of what is behind serious, long-lasting and sometimes bizarre mysterious symptoms – even in people who have never knew they contracted the virus, a new study found.
From rheumatoid arthritis attacks to autoimmune problems and “COVID toes”, there have been several reports of unusual and potentially worrying symptoms associated with the coronavirus, many of which were a mystery during the pandemic.
But, according to a Northwestern Medicine study, the X-ray image “for the first time confirmed and illustrated the causes of these symptoms”.
“We realized that the COVID virus can cause the body to attack itself in different ways, which can lead to rheumatological problems that require treatment for life,” said corresponding author, Dr. Swati Deshmukh, in a statement.
The study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Skeletal Radiology, showed that computed tomography, MRI and ultrasound images may help explain why some patients experience “prolonged musculoskeletal symptoms” after contracting the virus.
“Many patients with COVID-related musculoskeletal disorders recover, but for some individuals, their symptoms become severe, deeply concern the patient or affect their quality of life, which leads them to seek medical and imaging care,” Deshmukh, assistant professor of musculoskeletal radiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a musculoskeletal radiologist at Northwestern Medicine, he said. “This image allows us to see if COVID-related muscle and joint pain, for example, is not just body pain similar to what we see in the flu – but something more insidious.”
In some cases, the image may even suggest that a patient had COVID-19, but otherwise he didn’t know he did, the study found.
According to Deshmukh, specialists look for fluids or swelling in the tissues, accumulation of blood or gangrene.
“In some patients, the nerves are injured and in others, the problem is impaired blood flow,” said Deshmukh.
Bizarre symptoms like “COVID toes”, which in some cases can last for months, have been reported during the pandemic, although they are not as prevalent as other common symptoms associated with the virus.
According to the study, however, there has been a “surprising number of extrapulmonary manifestations” associated with the virus, along with reports emerging from other abnormalities and musculoskeletal disorders, which “can have dire consequences in the short and long term”.
This long-term inflammation made headlines recently after Gwyneth Paltrow revealed that she has been suffering from certain illnesses for months after her initial diagnosis.
“I had COVID-19 at first, and it left me with a little bit of long-tail fatigue and brain fog,” wrote Paltrow in a recent post for his website, Goop.
Paltrow said she did tests in January that showed she had “really high levels of inflammation in my body”.
The Northwestern study’s researchers said they hope their findings will help doctors adequately treat certain rare diseases that may come with a diagnosis of coronavirus.
“I think it’s important to differentiate between what the virus causes directly and what stimulates the body to do it,” said Deshmukh. “It is important for doctors to know what is going on to treat correctly.”