Article
Version 1
This version is not peer-reviewed
A blood supply pathophysiological microcirculatory mechanism for the Long COVID
Version 1
: Received: 29 July 2024 / Approved: 29 July 2024 / Online: 30 July 2024 (00:23:29 CEST)
How to cite: Koutsiaris, A. G. A blood supply pathophysiological microcirculatory mechanism for the Long COVID. Preprints 2024, 2024072324. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.2324.v1 Koutsiaris, A. G. A blood supply pathophysiological microcirculatory mechanism for the Long COVID. Preprints 2024, 2024072324. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.2324.v1
Abstract
Background: The term “Long COVID” is commonly used to describe persisting symptoms after acute COVID‑19. Until now, proposed mechanisms for the explanation of Long COVID have not related quantitative measurements to basic laws. In this work, a common framework for the Long COVID pathophysiological mechanism is presented, based on the blood supply deprivation and the flow diffusion equation. Methods: Case-control studies with statistically significant differences between cases (post-COVID patients) and controls, from multiple tissues and geographical areas, were gathered and tabulated. Microvascular loss (ML) was quantified by vessel density reduction (VDR), foveal avascular zone enlargement (FAZE), capillary density reduction (CDR), and percentage of perfused vessels reduction (PPVR). Both ML and hemodynamic decrease (HD), were incorporated in the tissue blood supply reduction (SR) estimation. Results: ML data were found from 763 post-COVID patients with an average VDR, FAZE, CDR, and PPVR of 16%, 31%, 14%, and 21%, respectively. The average HD from 72 post-COVID patients was 37%. The estimated SR for multiple tissues with data from 634 post-COVID patients reached a sizeable 47%. This large SR creates conditions of lower mass diffusion rates, hypoxia, and undernutrition, which at a multi-tissue level, for a long time, can explain the wide variety of the Long COVID symptoms. Conclusions: Disruption of peripheral tissue blood supply by the contribution of both ML and HD is proposed here to be the principal cause of the mechanism leading to Long COVID symptoms.
Keywords
Long COVID; pathophysiology; microcirculation; mechanism; blood supply; case-control studies; microvascular loss; microthrombosis; hemodynamics; diffusion.
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Other
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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