Neuropathic post-COVID pain symptomatology is not associated with serological biomarkers at hospital admission and hospitalization treatment in COVID-19 survivors

César Fernández-de-Las-Peñas; Carlos Guijarro; María Velasco-Arribas; Juan Torres-Macho; Ana Franco-Moreno; Andrea Truini; Oscar Pellicer-Valero; Lars Arendt-Nielsen

doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.1301970

Neuropathic post-COVID pain symptomatology is not associated with serological biomarkers at hospital admission and hospitalization treatment in COVID-19 survivors

Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 Nov 28:10:1301970. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1301970. eCollection 2023.

Authors

César Fernández-de-Las-Peñas^{1

2}, Carlos Guijarro^{3

4}, María Velasco-Arribas^{3

4}, Juan Torres-Macho^{5

6}, Ana Franco-Moreno⁵, Andrea Truini⁷, Oscar Pellicer-Valero⁸, Lars Arendt-Nielsen^{2

9

10}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), Madrid, Spain.
² Center for Neuroplasticity and Pain (CNAP), SMI, Department of Health Science and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
³ Department of Internal Medicine-Infectious Department, Research Department, Hospital Universitario Fundación Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), Madrid, Spain.
⁵ Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor-Virgen de la Torre, Madrid, Spain.
⁶ Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
⁷ Department of Human Neuroscience, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
⁸ Image Processing Laboratory (IPL), Parc Científic de la Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain.
⁹ Mech-Sense, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Clinical Institute, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.
¹⁰ Steno Diabetes Center North Denmark, Clinical Institute, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.

Abstract

Objective: Evidence suggests that individuals who had survived to coronavirus disease, 2019 (COVID-19) could develop neuropathic post-COVID pain. This study investigated the association of serological biomarkers and treatments received during hospitalization with development of neuropathic-associated symptoms.

Methods: One hundred and eighty-three (n = 183) previously hospitalized COVID-19 survivors during the first wave of the pandemic were assessed in a face-to-face interview 9.4 months after hospitalization. Nineteen serological biomarkers, hospitalization data, and treatment during hospitalization were obtained from medical records. Neuropathic pain symptoms (Self-Report Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Scale), sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), pain catastrophizing (Pain Catastrophizing Scale) and anxiety/depressive levels (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) were assessed.

Results: The prevalence of post-COVID pain was 40.9% (n = 75). Fifteen (20%) patients reported neuropathic symptoms. Overall, no differences in hospitalization data and serological biomarkers were identified according to the presence or not of neuropathic-associated symptoms. Patients with post-COVID pain had the highest neutrophil count, and post hoc analysis revealed that patients with neuropathic post-COVID associated symptoms had lower neutrophil count (p = 0.04) compared with those without neuropathic pain, but differences were small and possible not clinically relevant. No differences in fatigue, dyspnea, brain fog, anxiety or depressive levels, poor sleep, or pain catastrophism between patients with and without neuropathic symptoms were found.

Conclusion: It seems that neuropathic-like post-COVID pain symptoms are not associated with neither of assessed serological biomarkers at hospital admission nor hospitalization treatments received in this cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 survivors.

Keywords: COVID-19; biomarkers; hospitalization; neuropathic pain; post-COVID.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The LONG-COVID-EXP-CM was supported by a grant associated to the Fondo Europeo De Desarrollo Regional – Recursos REACT-UE del Programa Operativo de Madrid 2014–2020, en la línea de actuación de proyectos de I + D + i en materia de respuesta a COVID-19. An independent research grant was received from Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF21OC0067235) (lncidence and Characterization of Persistent Pain in COVID-19 Survivors: A pan-European Concerted Action). The funders had no role in the design, collection, management, analysis, or interpretation of the data, draft, review, or approval of the manuscript or its content. The authors were responsible for the decision to submit the manuscript for publication, and the sponsor did not participate in this decision.