Since the beginning of the pandemic, experts have been focusing on the impact caused by covid-19 in people’s lungs. In a new study, yet without peer review, researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) analyzed lung samples from 47 people who died from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SRAG) caused by covid-19 and identified two very distinct patterns of damage.
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In the study, five patients (19,6 %) had normal lung tissue damaged by the virus replaced by scar tissue (fibrosis), which made breathing difficult, while ten patients (21,2%) hurry ted nearly normal lung tissue, except for signs of clots in small vessels. A third group with 19 patients (62,1%) presented these two conditions simultaneously. Clinical complications during hospitalization included septic shock (51%), acute kidney failure (62%) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (45%).
The authors of the article report that, in the days before death, patients in the first group suffered a progressive decline in the oxygenation rate, loss of the organ’s ability to expand and retract during breathing and an increase in the production of collagen.
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As for the patients in the second group had an improvement in breathing patterns in the days before death, as well as a high level of the organ’s ability to expand and retract during breathing throughout the hospitalization period. On the other hand, they had an elevation in the level of platelets (blood cells involved in clot formation) and in clot formation. The article can be read here.
Source: Agência Fapesp