A study shows that Covid survivors have a remarkable number of kidney problems. Sometimes the damage is so great that it corresponds to the natural aging process of 30 years.
A study highlights kidney damage in former seriously ill Covid patients. The large US study suggests that the kidney problems persist for months after the acute phase of the infection and could possibly lead to a lifelong impairment of kidney function. Covid survivors were about 35 percent more likely to have kidney damage than non-Covid patients. The value covers a period between one and six months after the acute illness.
The study that was published basically shows that the risk increased with the severity of Covid disease. But that even people who had to be treated in a hospital with a less severe course had a higher risk than non-infected people. For Covid patients who were mildly ill and did not have to go to a clinic, however, there was no clear picture.
The researchers compared the health data of more than 89,000 people who were infected with the coronavirus between March 2020 and March 2021 with data from around 1.6 million non-Covid patients. The study is based on information on the health status of US veterans. The mean age was 68 years. In addition, the study participants were predominantly male and white.
The results are very unlikely to be transferable one-to-one to all Covid patients, stressed the physician and nephrologist Christopher John Sperati in an interview with the “New York Times”. Nonetheless, the study shows that the Covid survivors examined in the study had a long-term and “quite remarkable impact on kidney health”, “especially those who were very ill during the acute phase of the disease”.
Kidneys “age” by 30 years
To examine kidney function, the researchers analyzed how well the kidneys filtered the blood from certain breakdown products. The kidneys ensure that various toxins and waste materials are excreted in the urine. They also regulate the salt and water balance in the body and influence blood pressure. If the kidney function is severely restricted, so-called dialysis is used: In the process, the blood is cleaned of toxins. Patients with kidney failure can also be helped with a donor kidney.
In principle, kidney function also decreases with age – by a maximum of one percent annually from the age of 30 or 40. Serious illness or infection can speed up this process. This also seems to be the case with severe corona courses, as the study shows. Around 4760 Covid patients lost at least 30 percent of their original kidney function in the year after their illness. This corresponds to the natural aging process of 30 years. End-stage kidney disease was also found in 220 former Covid patients. Covid survivors received the diagnosis almost three times as often as patients without Covid.
It is unclear why severe corona diseases can damage the kidneys. Inflammatory processes or blood clots, which are more often observed in Covid patients, may play a role.
The medical professor Ziyad Al-Aly (Washington University School of Medicine) involved in the study wants to draw more attention to the topic. It is “very important” that doctors who care for former Covid patients pay attention to kidney function and possible signs of disease, Al-Aly told the New York Times. This is all the more important since impaired kidney function often does not initially cause pain or other complaints.
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