Published in

MDPI, Journal of Personalized Medicine, 9(13), p. 1351, 2023

DOI: 10.3390/jpm13091351

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Persistent Endothelial Lung Damage and Impaired Diffusion Capacity in Long COVID

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Since the beginning of the pandemic, both COVID-19-associated coagulopathy biomarkers and a plethora of endothelial biomarkers have been proposed and tested as prognostic tools of severity and mortality prediction. As the pandemic is gradually being controlled, attention is now focusing on the long-term sequelae of COVID-19. In the present study, we investigated the role of endothelial activation/dysfunction in long COVID syndrome. This observational study included 68 consecutive long COVID patients and a healthy age and sex-matched control group. In both groups, we measured 13 endothelial biomarkers. Moreover, in the long COVID patients, we evaluated fatigue and dyspnea severity, lung diffusion capacity (DLCO), and the 6-min walk (6MWT) test as measures of functional capacity. Our results showed that markers of endothelial activation/dysfunction were higher in long COVID patients, and that soluble intracellular adhesion molecule 1 (sICAM-1) and soluble vascular adhesion molecule 1 (sVCAM-1) negatively correlated with lung diffusion and functional capacity (sICAM-1 vs. DLCO, r = −0.306, p = 0.018; vs. 6MWT, r = −0.263, p = 0.044; and sVCAM-1 vs. DLCO, r= −0.346, p = 0.008; vs. 6MWT, r = −0.504, p < 0.0001). In conclusion, evaluating endothelial biomarkers alongside clinical tests might yield more specific insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms of long COVID manifestations.