A machine learning algorithm can analyze blood biomarkers to provide a definitive long-COVID diagnosis.
A simple blood test may finally provide answers for the millions struggling with long-COVID symptoms.
New research published in Nature reveals distinct biomarkers in patients with the complex condition, allowing a machine learning algorithm to diagnose it correctly nearly every time.
“This is the first paper of many findings where we’re seeing clear abnormalities between a healthy control population and folks with long COVID,” the study’s principal investigator, David Putrino, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience and is a professor of rehabilitation and human performance at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, told The Epoch Times.
How Does AI Spot Long COVID in Blood Samples?
The findings offer hope of objective confirmation to long-COVID sufferers, who represent about 6 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many have faced doubts that their persistent fatigue, brain fog, and pain after COVID-19 infection are real.
Mr. Putrino and his team analyzed around 270 patients from three locations—The Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Union Square, and Yale School of Medicine—between January 2021 and June 2022.
They divided participants into three groups: those with no prior COVID infection, those who fully recovered, and those with long-COVID symptoms for at least four months after infection.
Researchers had all patients complete questionnaires about symptoms, medical history, and health-related quality of life and give blood samples to identify biomarker differences.
A machine learning algorithm was applied to determine which biomarkers best identified long COVID. The questionnaire data were then fed to the program.
The algorithm differentiated between those with and without long COVID with 96 percent accuracy, detecting unique features in long-COVID patients’ blood. The biggest differences involved abnormal immune cell activity, reactivated dormant herpes viruses like Epstein-Barr, and reduced cortisol levels.
