Long Covid Newsletter
Issue #20January 19, 20266 studies

AI spots heart differences in kids with long COVID

This week's research reveals how AI is uncovering subtle cardiac changes in children with long COVID that traditional tests miss, while new studies explore unexpected risk factors and treatment approaches across different populations.

🤖 AI Detects Heart Changes in Kids with Long COVID That Standard Tests Miss

  • A deep learning model achieved 96.6% accuracy in distinguishing cardiac function between 270 children with long COVID and 400 healthy controls—despite standard echocardiographic measures showing no abnormalities in either group

  • The AI system (based on ResNet-50 architecture) demonstrated 96.7% sensitivity and 96.2% specificity, suggesting it can detect subtle cardiac changes invisible to conventional analysis

  • All children were under 18 and had persistent symptoms for longer than 4 weeks following SARS-CoV-2 infection during the Omicron surge between July 2022 and July 2023

Why it matters: This suggests long COVID may cause detectable but subtle heart function changes in children that current medical assessments can't catch—though what these AI-detected differences mean for kids' health remains unclear.

Key Findings

🧬 Family Cancer History Increases Long COVID Risk by 26%

  • Adults with a family history of cancer were 1.26 times more likely to develop long COVID compared to those without family cancer history, based on data from 25,389 US adults

  • Long COVID affected 8.4% of the overall study population, with symptoms lasting 3 months or longer

  • About 30% of this increased risk appears linked to underlying health conditions that run in families alongside cancer susceptibility

💡 Genetic factors that make families prone to cancer may also increase vulnerability to long-term COVID complications.
Top 20% journal 🔗 Cancer causes & control : CCC Journal Article 🗓️ Jan 13

🦠 Long COVID Risk Varies Dramatically by Virus Variant

  • Long COVID rates ranged from 14% with the AY.13 variant to 67.8% with B.1.1.7 (Alpha variant), based on analysis of 4,789 SARS-CoV-2 sequences linked to patient records

  • Among 1,554 patients meeting long COVID definitions, 56.3% were female and the average age was 43.1 years (compared to 35.9 years for those without long COVID)

  • Researchers identified eight conserved regions in the spike protein that could serve as targets for future multivalent vaccines

💡 The specific virus variant you caught may have determined your long COVID risk more than previously realized.
Top 20% journal 🔗 Journal of clinical and translational science Journal Article 🗓️ Jan 12

🏃 Pulmonary Rehab Works Equally Well for Long COVID, COPD, and Lung Disease

  • Among 192 patients who completed pulmonary rehabilitation, those with long COVID showed similar improvements in walking distance, breathing difficulty, and quality of life compared to patients with COPD or interstitial lung disease

  • Long COVID patients were younger and more likely to be Hispanic with higher body mass index compared to COPD patients

  • All three groups experienced significant improvements in depression, anxiety, and stress levels following the rehabilitation program

💡 Standard lung rehabilitation programs may be just as effective for long COVID patients as for those with established chronic lung diseases.
Top 20% journal 🔗 Journal of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and prevention Journal Article 🗓️ Jan 13

🧠 Smokers Face Double Mental Health Hit from Long COVID

  • Among 104 adults with tobacco use disorder, long COVID led to marked increases in depression, anxiety, insomnia, and perceived stress (all with p-values < 0.001)

  • Participants also showed significant decreases in sleep quality, overall quality of life, and serum cortisol levels, indicating disrupted stress hormone regulation

  • All participants had no prior neuropsychiatric conditions before the pandemic, suggesting long COVID triggered new mental health challenges in this vulnerable group

💡 Long COVID may create a particularly severe mental health burden for people with addiction disorders.
Top 30% journal 🔗 Journal of Addictive Diseases 🗓️ Jan 12

🔬 Brain Receptor Changes May Drive Long COVID Cognitive Problems

  • A scientific commentary discusses new findings about increased AMPA receptors (brain signaling proteins) being linked to cognitive impairment in long COVID patients

  • The commentary emphasizes the importance of considering neurological diversity when interpreting brain imaging advances in long COVID research

  • This builds on emerging evidence that long COVID may cause measurable changes in brain receptor systems that affect thinking and memory

💡 Long COVID's cognitive symptoms may stem from specific, detectable changes in brain receptor activity.
🎖️ Top 10% journal 🔗 Brain communications Comment 🗓️ Jan 12

Implications

This week's research reveals long COVID's complexity across age groups and populations, from AI-detected heart changes in children to variant-specific risks and rehabilitation outcomes. The findings suggest personalized approaches may be needed based on individual risk factors, ethnic background, and underlying health conditions.

Studies in this issue

Primary sources used for this newsletter.

  1. Using Deep Learning to Assess Heart Function in Children After COVID-19
    main storyJournal of imaging informatics in medicine2026-01-12PMID 41526555
  2. Long COVID’s psychological and physical effects in people who use tobacco
    key findingJournal of Addictive Diseases2026-01-13PMID 41527930
  3. Brain differences and wider relevance: expanding AMPA receptor imaging studies in long COVID
    key findingBrain communications2026-01-12PMID 41523183
  4. Physical and Mental Benefits of Lung Rehabilitation in COPD, Lung Fibrosis, and Long COVID Patients
    key findingJournal of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and prevention2026-01-13PMID 41529159
  5. Family history of cancer linked to higher risk of Long COVID in US adults
    key findingCancer causes &amp; control : CCC2026-01-13PMID 41528554
  6. Long COVID rates in different COVID-19 variants and shared spike protein targets for broad vaccines
    key findingJournal of clinical and translational science2026-01-12PMID 41523623

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