[conspire] When to get a covid test, brains, and a weird case, and a cardiology vs. immunology joke

[Deirdre Saoirse Moen]

Note: I saved the article with the good joke for last. :P

Optimum time to get a nasal swab test (not the at home type, which is less accurate):

tl;dr: 2-4 days after first symptoms, see figure 2

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-1495


Truly depressing subject: structural brain changes in covid patients. Very technical neuroscience.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30228-5/fulltext

Study findings revealed possible disruption to micro-structural and functional brain integrity in the recovery stages of COVID-19, suggesting the long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2. (In *most* of the people.)


For the truly horrifying one-off, though:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.23.20160770v1

Autoimmune Encephalitis Presenting with Acute Excited Catatonia in a 40-Year-Old Male Patient with Covid-19

> We are not aware of other types of encephalitis with such distinct pyramidal tract symptoms and raise the possibility that this may be a novel form of autoimmune encephalitis induced by infection with SARS-CoV-2.

(pyramidal tract being motor control systems, encephalitis is inflammation of at least part of the brain; in this case, several parts were involved)


And, for the lightest piece, the Atlantic piece, which opens with a funny cardiologist vs. immunologist joke:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/08/covid-19-immunity-is-the-pandemics-central-mystery/614956/

I had noticed this in papers and wondered if I’d missed something, so glad to know I didn’t:

> Normally, the immune system mobilizes different groups of cells and molecules when fighting three broad groups of pathogens: viruses and microbes that invade cells, bacteria and fungi that stay outside cells, and parasitic worms. Only the first of these programs should activate during a viral infection. But Iwasaki’s team recently showed that all three activate in severe COVID-19 cases. “It seems completely random,” she says. In the worst cases, “the immune system almost seems confused as to what it’s supposed to be making.”


Also, it links to a piece about the long haulers, of which I am one. Still symptomatic after 6-1/2 months. :(

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/covid-19-coronavirus-longterm-symptoms-months/612679/

Wound up in the ER 2-1/2 weeks ago with a high heart rate and put on a heart monitor. :O Ever since covid, I’ve had an occasional random high heart rate. Waiting to hear back what the results are and so forth. But…yeah, this disease sucks.

Deirdre