‘Long Covid’ (post-covid syndrome): Mechanism of occurrence, diagnosis and rehabilitation

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of an urgent problem of modern humanity – the fight against a pandemic caused by a new coronavirus infection, namely: the study of the mechanism of development of ‘long Covid’ (post-covid syndrome), a new clinical and laboratory method of its diagnosis, issues of drug and non-drug rehabilitation of patients who have suffered COVID‑19. The paper describes the etiopathogenesis of post-covid syndrome (PS), the distinctive features of which are the defeat of the cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous, digestive, immune systems of the body, ENT organs and musculoskeletal system. For the diagnosis of post-covid syndrome, a monochrome nanoparticle analyzer (MAN) has been tested for the first time in the Russian Federation, which allows determining pathophysiological shifts in the homeostasis system. It was found that the MAN method has a sufficiently high diagnostic sensitivity (78%), and shifts in the homeostasis system in post-covid syndrome are statistically significant (p < 0.001). A fundamentally important point of this study is that an algorithm has been developed for noninvasive diagnosis of PS by saliva (oropharyngeal flushes), based on the detection of a high contribution to the scattering of laser radiation in the mid-frequency range of the spectrum on nanoparticles ranging in size from 119 to 121 nm. The article also pays special attention to medicinal and non-medicinal methods of treatment of patients with ‘long Covid’ experiencing the consequences of a new coronavirus infection. It has been established that the best effect is provided by complex treatment combining methods of the traditional European school (drug therapy with the use of cardiovascular drugs, nootropic agents, chondroprotectors, vitamins and mineral complexes, hormones, hepatoprotectors, biostimulants, sedatives and anti-inflammatory drugs and other drugs) and non-drug methods of restorative treatment practiced by Oriental medicine (acupuncture, hirudotherapy, massage, osteopathy, etc.).