TY - JOUR
T1 - Epipharyngeal Abrasive Therapy (EAT) Has Potential as a Novel Method for Long COVID Treatment
AU - Imai, Kazuaki
AU - Yamano, Takafumi
AU - Nishi, Soichiro
AU - Nishi, Ryushiro
AU - Nishi, Tatsuro
AU - Tanaka, Hiroaki
AU - Tsunoda, Toshiyuki
AU - Yoshimoto, Shohei
AU - Tanaka, Ayaki
AU - Hiromatsu, Kenji
AU - Shirasawa, Senji
AU - Nakagawa, Takashi
AU - Nishi, Kensuke
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the Soda Toyoji Memorial Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/5
Y1 - 2022/5
N2 - COVID-19 often causes sequelae after initial recovery, referred to collectively as long COVID. Long COVID is considered to be caused by the persistence of chronic inflammation after acute COVID-19 infection. We found that all long COVID patients had residual inflammation in the epipharynx, an important site of coronavirus replication, and some long COVID symptoms are similar to those associated with chronic epipharyngitis. Epipharyngeal abrasive therapy (EAT) is a treatment for chronic epipharyngitis in Japan that involves applying zinc chloride as an anti-inflammatory agent to the epipharyngeal mucosa. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of EAT for the treatment of long COVID. The subjects in this study were 58 patients with long COVID who were treated with EAT in the outpatient department once a week for one month (mean age = 38.4 ± 12.9 years). The intensities of fatigue, headache, and attention disorder, which are reported as frequent symptoms of long COVID, were assessed before and after EAT using the visual analog scale (VAS). EAT reduced inflammation in the epipharynx and significantly improved the intensity of fatigue, headache, and attention disorder, which may be related to myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). These results suggest that EAT has potential as a novel method for long COVID treatment.
AB - COVID-19 often causes sequelae after initial recovery, referred to collectively as long COVID. Long COVID is considered to be caused by the persistence of chronic inflammation after acute COVID-19 infection. We found that all long COVID patients had residual inflammation in the epipharynx, an important site of coronavirus replication, and some long COVID symptoms are similar to those associated with chronic epipharyngitis. Epipharyngeal abrasive therapy (EAT) is a treatment for chronic epipharyngitis in Japan that involves applying zinc chloride as an anti-inflammatory agent to the epipharyngeal mucosa. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of EAT for the treatment of long COVID. The subjects in this study were 58 patients with long COVID who were treated with EAT in the outpatient department once a week for one month (mean age = 38.4 ± 12.9 years). The intensities of fatigue, headache, and attention disorder, which are reported as frequent symptoms of long COVID, were assessed before and after EAT using the visual analog scale (VAS). EAT reduced inflammation in the epipharynx and significantly improved the intensity of fatigue, headache, and attention disorder, which may be related to myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). These results suggest that EAT has potential as a novel method for long COVID treatment.
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U2 - 10.3390/v14050907
DO - 10.3390/v14050907
M3 - Article
C2 - 35632649
AN - SCOPUS:85129839258
SN - 1999-4915
VL - 14
JO - Viruses
JF - Viruses
IS - 5
M1 - 907
ER -
