Rheumatic Symptoms Following Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Chronic Post-COVID-19 Condition
Four pages on PainSci cite Cui 2022: 1. The Complete Guide to Low Back Pain 2. 38 Surprising Causes of Pain 3. Long COVID hurts 4. Paxlovid rebound is not a thing + Covid hurts
PainSci notes on Cui 2022:
12% of patients still have painful, swollen joints a year after COVID-19 infection, based on data from almost 1300 patients who were hospitalized. The joints most affected were the knees, hands, and shoulders. Women and older patients were at somewhat higher risk. Illness severity or steroid therapy were irrelevant.
original abstract †Abstracts here may not perfectly match originals, for a variety of technical and practical reasons. Some abstacts are truncated for my purposes here, if they are particularly long-winded and unhelpful. I occasionally add clarifying notes. And I make some minor corrections.
BACKGROUND: Detailed characteristics of rheumatic symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were still unknown. We aim to investigate the proportions, characteristics, and risk factors of this condition.
METHODS: In this prospective, longitudinal cohort study, discharged patients with COVID-19 were interviewed face-to-face at 12 months after symptom onset. Rheumatic symptoms following COVID-19 included newly occurring joint pain and/or joint swelling. The risk factors of developing rheumatic symptoms were identified by multivariable logistic regression analysis.
RESULTS: In total, 1296 of 2469 discharged patients with COVID-19 were enrolled in this study. Among them, 160 (12.3% [95% confidence interval [CI 10.6%-14.3%]) suffered from rheumatic symptoms following COVID-19 at 12-month follow-up. The most frequently involved joints were the knee joints (38%), followed by hand (25%) and shoulder (19%). Rheumatic symptoms were independent of the severity of illness and corticosteroid treatment during the acute phase, while elderly age (odds ratio [OR], 1.22 [95% CI, 1.06-1.40]) and female sex (OR, 1.58 [95% CI, 1.12-2.23]) were identified as the risk factors for this condition.
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- “Skeletal Muscle and Peripheral Nerve Histopathology in COVID-19,” Suh et al, Neurology, 2021.
- “Association Between SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Immune-Mediated Myopathy in Patients Who Have Died,” Aschman et al, JAMA Neurol, 2021.
- “Prevalence and Risk Factors of de Novo Widespread Post-COVID Pain in Non-Hospitalized COVID-19 Survivors: A Nation-Wide Exploratory Population-Based Survey,” Ebbesen et al, Journal of Pain, 2023.
- “Long COVID: major findings, mechanisms and recommendations,” Davis et al, Nat Rev Microbiol, 2023.
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