But until another Florida judge bans “Long Covid,” new studies about diagnosis and treatment of this frequently disabling disorder will continue to be published. Symptoms of long Covid can be gastrointestinal, respiratory, or neurological.

Jack H. Florin MD | Your Neurologist in Orange County.

A new study looked at 10 patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a “dysautonomia,” in which, with standing, the heart rate increases by at least 30 beats per minute causing faintness, cognitive symptoms, and headaches.

This group was compared to 9 patients with long Covid. In the POTS group, 6 of 10 also had small fiber neuropathy, which causes chronic widespread pain. Surprisingly, 8 of 9 long Covid patients had a similar neuropathy. The researchers believed that the findings were consistent with low grade inflammation/autoimmunity, which may be treatable with drugs such as IVIG, and anti-CD20 and other monoclonal antibodies, and these will likely be tested.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, none of the nine patients had been vaccinated. The takeaway here is unavoidable. We should all be vaccinated to prevent Covid-19, since even patients with mild disease are at risk of developing long COVID.

See the article by Novak et al in Annals of Neurology December 24, 2021.

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