United States: In the latest study, it is found that it is shown that there more than a dozen commonly available lab tests that have been unable to detect long COVID in a study involving more than ten thousand adults.
Therefore, it led the doctors with the option to rule out other health conditions to confirm if someone has the condition.
More about the news
It is vital that after almost four and a half years of the pandemic, the biggest challenge still prevails is to understand, diagnose, and treat it.
Therefore, NIH-backed researchers wrote in the Annals of Internal Medicine that there is no evidence to prove the efficacy of twenty-five available routine blood or urine tests, which could provide a reliable output and measure prior SARS-CoV-2 infection or twelve symptoms that could persist after infection.
However, for better results, the study also tried to determine whether COVID could lead to changes like altered blood counts or protein in the urine.
However, the tests also showed differences between people with prior infection and those without.
However, when they were used just on infected people, they couldn’t reveal a meaningful contrast between those who had developed COVID and those who had not.
The researchers hence classified the ones with long COVID symptoms through a scoring system, which helped identify symptoms such as brain fog, GI problems, and palpitations.
What are the challenges, as per experts?
According to David Goff of the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the challenge remains to find ways to “quickly and accurately diagnose long COVID to ensure people struggling with this disease receive the most appropriate care as soon as possible,” as Axios reported.
“Long COVID symptoms can prevent someone from returning to work or school, and may even make everyday tasks a burden, so the ability for rapid diagnosis is key,” he continued.