The millions of people impacted by the chronic aftereffects of COVID-19 following infection with SARS-CoV-2 present a significant public health challenge. A recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine examined whether current tests were adequate to identify post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC). PASC, or long COVID, encompasses a broad range of symptoms that can significantly impact quality of life.
Depending on the specific manifestations, the symptoms can vary from moderate to severe. Despite its widespread effects, no validated biomarkers exist for this condition. Study: Differentiation of Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Postacute Sequelae by Standard Clinical Laboratory Measurements in the RECOVER Cohort .
Image Credit: Pressmaster/Shutterstock.com About the study Clinical laboratory tests were evaluated as potential biomarkers for PASC. Using a newly developed PASC index, the likelihood of these tests identifying PASC rather than a prior SARS-CoV-2 infection was calculated.
The study involved 10,094 participants across 83 sites as part of the National Institutes of Health’s RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) Adult cohort. Participants included those with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but none had been reinfected within 30 days of the study visit. Researchers used prospectively obtained data to create the PASC index based on 12 symptoms with the highest discriminative value for differentiating between SARS-CoV-2 infection and non-infection.
This .