A Covid infection can affect the retina
A Geneva study has discovered temporary damage to the retinas in people hospitalized for pneumonia due to Covid.
The list of side effects of Covid-19 is growing: the virus sometimes attacks the retina.
MATTE BLUE
“Our results argue for retinal damage primarily due to viral infection.”
The research team observed white spots on the retinas of nearly 20 hospitalized patients, the Cantonal Hospital revealed on Tuesday. in a press release. “These stains […] are signs of retinal pain secondary to an occlusion of the small arteries”, explains doctor Gordana Sunaric Mégevand. The medical director of the CRCO specifies that these alterations are usually observed in people with diabetes or hypertension.
Yet 64% of study participants did not have diabetes and only 10% had a history of hypertension. “Our results therefore plead for a retinal alteration mainly due to the viral infection”, concludes Doctor Christophe Marti, assistant doctor in the General Internal Medicine Department of the HUG.
Temporary impairment
The good news of this research published in the “Journal of clinical medicineis the disappearance of the spots three months following hospitalization and that no chronic sight impairment has been observed.
The retinas of 11% of the patients studied showed damage.
CC
The research team sees three possible mechanisms potentially responsible for temporary retinal damage. The first would be tissue damage by virus infiltration into vessel cells, which would result in inflammation and vascular obstruction. A second cause might be an occlusion of the retinal arterioles.
Finally, the study points out that the spots might appear following under-oxygenation linked to acute respiratory distress, typical of severe Covid cases.
Published today at 07:30
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