In the study published in The Lancet the 1is November 2022, researchers from the international multidisciplinary team demonstrated how Covid could alter the structure of the finest pulmonary blood vessels. To do this, they examined the lungs of patients with severe Covid, using the very latest 3D imaging technique: hierarchical phase contrast tomography (HiP-CT), developed at the Grenoble Synchrotron, the brightest X-ray source in the world.
HiP-CT can reveal in detail the microscopic biological changes that form pulmonary fibrosis. Namely a lesion of the lungs that occurred as a result of chronic inflammation. Gradual healing then gradually prevents the passage of oxygen. However, it turns out that pulmonary fibrosis results, in the patients studied, from generalized vascular damage caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Severe Covid-19 causes pulmonary fibrosis in 20% of cases. DR
The research team was able to identify three “key markers”, secreted in the lung tissue. Then she established a correlation between the development of pulmonary fibrosis and the increase of these markers in the blood. These blood biomarkers, diagnosed early, could be used to predict disease severity and therapeutic response in Covid-19.
In addition, the results suggest that some existing treatments could help combat the effects of severe Covid-19. Specifically those aimed at preventing microvascular thrombosis and tissue ischemia. It is therefore a new hope in the fight against the impact of the pandemic.
Pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable diseaseAlthough pulmonary fibrosis can be treated with medication, it remains incurable, with a higher death rate than many cancers. Lung transplantation is the only therapy that can still save the lives of many affected people.
According to epidemiological data from Covid-19 patients, approximately 20% of hospitalized patients develop post-Covid pulmonary fibrosis, the extent and progression of which is highly variable and which can only be predicted very imprecisely by clinical imaging. routine.