December 01,2020

Anna Murray 

Most recently Professor Fergus Gleeson of Oxford University in the UK has led the study of 10 COVID-19 patients aged 19 to 69 by using a scanning technique to detect changes left hidden during standard health scans. The study was to observe patients inhaling the xenon gas during a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan and a clear picture of lung damage could be shown.

All the 10 COVID-19 patients had not been admitted to intensive care or required ventilation while conventional scans had shown no problems in their lungs. According to Professor Gleeson's finding, 8 of the patients had the problems of persistent shortness of breath and tiredness 3 months after COVID-19 infection. That is, the air failed to flow easily into their blood.

Prof. James Wild, who leads researchers at the University of Sheffield in the UK to develop the xenon scanning technique, is confident of its sensitiveness to the lung impairment and hopes to know more about COVID-19 lung disease. Another researcher, Dr. Shelley Hayles, mentioned that medical staff have the stress of not knowing how to sort out the patients’ symptoms, so this new method of diagnosis is helpful.

Professor Gleeson reportedly will continue to apply the scanning technique on 100 more COVID-19 patients. The new effort will study those who are not admitted to hospital and do not suffer serious symptoms. The goal will discover if the extent and duration of lung damage may possibly occur in those patients.

Photo:Webshot.