Video: Every Case Tells a Story| Webinar: ACR/CHEST ILD Guidelines in Practice

An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

  • Conditions
    • Axial Spondyloarthritis
    • Gout and Crystalline Arthritis
    • Myositis
    • Osteoarthritis and Bone Disorders
    • Pain Syndromes
    • Pediatric Conditions
    • Psoriatic Arthritis
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • Sjögren’s Disease
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
    • Systemic Sclerosis
    • Vasculitis
    • Other Rheumatic Conditions
  • FocusRheum
    • ANCA-Associated Vasculitis
    • Axial Spondyloarthritis
    • Gout
    • Psoriatic Arthritis
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
  • Guidance
    • Clinical Criteria/Guidelines
    • Ethics
    • Legal Updates
    • Legislation & Advocacy
    • Meeting Reports
      • ACR Convergence
      • Other ACR meetings
      • EULAR/Other
    • Research Rheum
  • Drug Updates
    • Analgesics
    • Biologics/DMARDs
  • Practice Support
    • Billing/Coding
    • EMRs
    • Facility
    • Insurance
    • QA/QI
    • Technology
    • Workforce
  • Opinion
    • Patient Perspective
    • Profiles
    • Rheuminations
      • Video
    • Speak Out Rheum
  • Career
    • ACR ExamRheum
    • Awards
    • Career Development
  • ACR
    • ACR Home
    • ACR Convergence
    • ACR Guidelines
    • Journals
      • ACR Open Rheumatology
      • Arthritis & Rheumatology
      • Arthritis Care & Research
    • From the College
    • Events/CME
    • President’s Perspective
  • Search

Months After COVID-19 Infection, Rheumatic-Like Symptoms Persist

Mary Beth Nierengarten  |  Issue: April 2021  |  April 16, 2021

As more people get vaccinated for COVID-19, there’s hope that the long days of a pandemic, which has claimed more than 2.5 million lives globally and 500,000 in the U.S., will soon draw to a close and allow daily life to return to normal. However, for some people, this recovery may take longer, because the lingering symptoms of COVID-19 are making it difficult for them to return to the hale state of health they enjoyed prior to contracting SARS-CoV-2.

The nomenclature for these patients is evolving. Long-haulers is popular, as is people with long COVID. Whichever term is used, it’s now widely recognized that many people are emerging from SARS-CoV-2 infection with persistent symptoms, and these cases are being documented in a growing number of cohort studies.

ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Research Says …

In China, a large cohort study found 76% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wuhan between January and May 2020 had at least one ongoing symptom six months after acute infection.1

A 2021 cohort study from Ireland found 62% of patients—both those hospitalized for acute COVID-19 infection and those with milder disease—reported they didn’t feel back to full health at a median of 75 days after diagnosis. Forty-seven percent of these patients met the case definition for fatigue, independent of initial disease severity. Of the 48% of patients in the Irish study who required hospitalization for COVID-19, 4% had persistently abnormal chest X-rays.2

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Other cohort studies are documenting prolonged symptoms in people with initial mild COVID-19.3,4

To better understand these numbers, a meta-analysis pooled data from multiple studies and found 80% of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 developed one or more long-term symptoms.5 The analysis of 47,910 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 from 15 studies assessed symptoms, signs or laboratory parameters two weeks or more after viral infection (range: 14–100 days). The analysis included patients with all degrees of COVID-19 severity. Table 1 describes the most common symptoms reported.

Musculoskeletal symptoms are also emerging as a common persistent issue, as reported in a systematic review documenting an array of rheumatic and neuromuscular complications supported by multi-modal imaging. The review describes the range of persistent effects of COVID-19 on muscles, nerves, joints, soft tissue and bone found on imaging. The symptoms reported by patients included arm and leg weakness, pain, numbness, joint pain and swelling with restricted motion, and severe fatigue.6

Dr. Deshmukh

Dr. Deshmukh

The study’s senior author, Swati Deshmukh, MD, assistant professor, Department of Radiology (Musculoskeletal), Northwestern University, Chicago, emphasizes the clinical implication of these findings and the increasing number of people experiencing and now living with persistent post-COVID-19 symptoms.

“Early in the pandemic, there was a focus on survival vs. death,” she says. “One year later, we need to come to terms with the fact that there are many people who have long-term medical conditions because of COVID-19. The healthcare system will need to address this new patient population, the so-called long-haulers who may require expertise from doctors of different specialties.”

To date, no one knows why some people develop persistent symptoms. But the pool of patients is growing, with a new study reporting that even patients who do not feel sick after testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 are developing long-term symptoms.7

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 | Single Page
Share: 

Filed under:Conditions Tagged with:coughCOVID-19dyspneafatigueneuropsychiatric

Related Articles

    The Many Facets of COVID-19: Experts Address Basic & Clinical Research Concepts in the COVID-19 Era

    November 23, 2021

    New concepts in autoimmunity & immunology are being discovered daily in research being conducted to understand the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its implications for rheumatology & all fields of medicine. Here are some insights shared by experts during day 1 of the Basic and Clinical Research Conference.

    Research Helps Explain Idiosyncrasies of COVID-19

    November 23, 2021

    The Basic and Clinical Research Conference session on Rheumatology Complications of Emerging Viral Infections/SARS-CoV-2 presented findings from numerous studies that help explain some of the idiosyncrasies of COVID-19.

    Bernard Chantal / shutterstock.com

    Diagnostic Challenges of MIS-C

    May 12, 2022

    During the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in Washington, D.C., we were asked to evaluate a 14-year-old boy admitted to the pediatric hospitalist service. He had been healthy until two weeks before, when he noted a sore throat, and soon after he developed fevers and rashes without congestion, shortness of breath, conjunctivitis or swollen lymph…

    Serological Antibody Tests in COVID-19: Test Reliability and Utility

    June 10, 2020

    Serological testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies may play a critical role in the management of the worldwide health crisis. Such testing may reveal key information for epidemiology, convalescent plasma therapies and vaccine development. However, the situation is complex, and much is unknown. Although such testing may ultimately be used to…

  • About Us
  • Meet the Editors
  • Issue Archives
  • Contribute
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 1931-3268 (print). ISSN 1931-3209 (online).
  • DEI Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookie Preferences