Researchers say they may have found some biomarkers for long COVID, a debilitating condition that the medical community has struggled to identify via diagnoses, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature.
Examining blood samples among 273 individuals, researchers were able to identify blood conditions that correlated with long COVID symptoms, which the study said included “fatigue, post-exertional malaise, and a variety of cognitive and autonomic dysfunctions” of which, prior to the study, “the biological processes associated with the development and persistence of these symptoms are unclear.”
The blood markers included “exaggerated “immune responses against the virus that causing COVID-19, “higher antibody responses” against non-COVID viral pathogens, and lower cortisol levels.
A recent workers compensation study indicated that 6% of claims have long COVID symptoms, which the industry has described as mysterious with regards to diagnoses.