Overview
- Researchers analyzed blood from 50 long COVID patients and 38 healthy volunteers using imaging flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy.
- Patient samples showed a median 19.7-fold increase in circulating microclots that were also larger than those seen in controls.
- Neutrophil extracellular traps were observed physically embedded within microclots, with a much stronger association in long COVID samples.
- An anonymized AI classifier distinguished patient from control samples with 91% accuracy based on microclot and NET patterns.
- The study, published in the Journal of Medical Virology by teams in France and South Africa, is preliminary and the authors call for replication, longitudinal research, and therapeutic trials.