Quote:
Originally Posted by 77T
In my review of the medical info to date, this particular finding wasn’t present. I did find impacts to those contracting pneumonia. There are unique markings in the lungs during the progress of COVID-19. But nothing about permanence. For example: https://inside.mountsinai.org/blog/p...w-study-finds/
Anytime one contracts pneumonia, there might be some scarring of the lungs. But that isn’t unique to COVID-19.
Could you provide the citations where you found unique COVID-19 histories supporting your info?
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Of course Paul. Here is a link to an article out of China, published in one of the respected journals for practicing radiologists in the US.
https://www.ajronline.org/doi/full/10.2214/AJR.20.22975
"Fibrotic streaks indicated local inflammatory absorption and residual fibrosis, and bronchus distortion suggested that the local inflammation absorbed and retracted the bronchus inside or surrounded it. The pleura were often involved and were characterized by thickening and retraction resulting from the inflammatory reaction."
On imaging, community acquired bacterial pneumonia typically resolves to the point where there is little damage to the underlying supportive structures of the lung tissue and airways. Bacterial pneumonia will fill the alveoli, and the immune system reacts to this, kills the bacteria, and clears the debris. We see this all the time in healthy (and even unhealthy) lungs on follow-up radiographic and CT imaging.
COVID-19 can lead to changes in the interstitium that are usually chronic and fixed. It's probably the inflammatory immune response that causes this rather than the virus itself. We won't know the real extent of permanent lung injury and its clinical relevance for months, and we can't generalize findings from a small study to the world population. But I can say confidently that other diseases that cause lung fibrosis and findings in this study, whether idiopathic or environmental, leave chronic changes that do not heal.