CHICAGO – The researchers say a new study has confirmed, for the first time, that COVID-19 can cause the body to attack itself. Deep medical images are revealing that some pain and joint pain symptoms can be prolonged and require lifelong treatment
In addition to losing his sense of smell last June, Tajma Hodzick had none of the telltale signs of COVID infection.
“I didn’t even lose my taste completely. It was mainly the sense of smell, ”she recalled.
However, a few days after the test was positive, the 31-year-old woman started having more serious side effects. Blisters appeared on his hands, rashes on his legs and arms and the joints began to swell.
“I also started to feel some pain in my feet. I ended up in the ER just because the swelling was so big in my hands. I had bubbles, ”said Hodzick. “I couldn’t wash my hands, because I couldn’t rub them; it hurt so much. “
A new article published in the magazine Skeletal Radiology confirmed and documented the causes of these types of symptoms using computed tomography, MRI and ultrasound.
“In some patients, COVID-19 triggers an autoimmune reaction, which means that the virus can induce the body to attack itself,” explained Dr. Swati Deshmukh, a musculoskeletal radiologist and assistant professor at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in Chicago.
She is one of the authors of the study.
“Some of my patients have recovered and imaging has shown signs of improvement, but for other patients, and especially patients with these autoimmune diseases that were triggered by COVID-19, they will need treatment for life,” said Deshmukh.
In some cases, Dr. Deshmukh says that these types of inflammatory responses can mysteriously appear without other common symptoms of the coronavirus.
“They may not even know that they have been infected by the virus and, later, start to develop problems in the muscles, in the nerves in the joints,” she said.
The image, she says, can help explain the origins of the symptoms and guide post-COVID-19 treatments with a rheumatologist or dermatologist.
After two hospitalizations and three biopsies, Hodzick was finally diagnosed with COVID-induced psoriatic arthritis. It may be one of the first of its kind.
The chronic condition now requires that she take medication daily.
“We really don’t know if once it gets out of my system, how it will look,” she said. “If I, at some point, I start giving up on medication or if those symptoms are going to come back. So, really now, it’s a big unknown. “
It is another long-term symptom that experts say proves how much remains to be learned about the virus’s persistent effects.