University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
Department of Oncology, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.
Eur J Clin Invest. 2023 Aug;53(8):e13989. doi: 10.1111/eci.13989. Epub 2023 Apr 12.
There has been little consensus for a specific definition of long COVID, though several organizations have created varying ones. We sought to examine the definition of long COVID used in ongoing clinical trials.
We searched 'long COVID' and related terms on both PubMed and clinicaltrials.gov for randomized studies that either included patients with long COVID or had a persistent or long-term COVID-related outcome and abstracted long COVID definition components.
Of the 92 studies, a laboratory-only confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 was stipulated in 54.3% (n = 50) studies. We found eight different time durations specified for how long symptoms needed to have occurred, ranging from 4 to 52 weeks, with 12 weeks being the most common (34.8%; n = 32). 35.9% (n = 33) did not specify a time duration. There were 57 different symptoms specified in total, with a median of one symptom identified per study (range 0-32). 8.7% of trials adhered to NICE or WHO definitions.
Standardized definitions of long COVID should be applied in studies assessing this condition to unify and harmonize research on this topic.
尽管有几个组织已经制定了不同的定义，但对于长新冠的具体定义仍未达成共识。我们旨在研究目前正在进行的临床试验中使用的长新冠定义。
我们在 PubMed 和 clinicaltrials.gov 上搜索了“长新冠”和相关术语，以查找纳入长新冠患者或具有持续性或长期新冠相关结局的随机研究，并提取长新冠定义的组成部分。
在 92 项研究中，有 54.3%（n=50）的研究规定了仅通过实验室确诊的 COVID-19 诊断。我们发现，有八种不同的时间持续时间规定了症状需要发生的时间，范围从 4 周到 52 周，其中 12 周最为常见（34.8%；n=32）。35.9%（n=33）未指定时间持续时间。总共指定了 57 种不同的症状，每篇研究平均确定了一种症状（范围 0-32）。有 8.7%的试验遵循了 NICE 或世卫组织的定义。
在评估这种疾病的研究中，应采用标准化的长新冠定义，以统一和协调该主题的研究。
