Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada.
Centre de recherche intégrée pour un système de santé apprenant en santé et services sociaux, Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de Chaudière-Appalaches, Lévis, QC, Canada.
Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 30;15(1):8449. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52404-4.
Symptoms of the Post-COVID-19 Condition are often non-specific making it a challenge to distinguish them from symptoms due to other medical conditions. In this study, we compare the proportion of emergency department patients who developed symptoms consistent with the World Health Organization's Post-COVID-19 Condition clinical case definition between those who tested positive for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 infection and time-matched patients who tested negative. Our results show that over one-third of emergency department patients with a proven acute infection meet Post-COVID-19 Condition criteria 3 months post-index visit. However, one in five test-negative patients who claim never having been infected also report symptoms consistent with Post-COVID-19 Condition highlighting the lack of specificity of the clinical case definition. Testing for SARS-CoV-2 during the acute phase of a suspected infection should continue until specific biomarkers of Post-COVID-19 Condition become available for diagnosis and treatment.
新冠后症状通常不具有特异性，这使得将其与其他疾病引起的症状区分开来具有挑战性。在这项研究中，我们比较了在出现符合世界卫生组织新冠后临床病例定义症状的急诊患者中，新冠病毒严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 检测呈阳性的患者与时间匹配的新冠病毒检测呈阴性的患者的比例。我们的结果表明，在索引就诊后 3 个月，超过三分之一的有明确急性感染的急诊患者符合新冠后条件标准。然而，五分之一声称从未感染过的新冠病毒检测阴性患者也报告了符合新冠后条件的症状，这突出了临床病例定义缺乏特异性。在疑似感染的急性期应继续进行 SARS-CoV-2 检测，直到出现新冠后条件的特异性生物标志物可用于诊断和治疗。
