New home monitoring test for symptoms of long Covid

The adapted Autonomic Profile (aAP) test can be done by anyone with symptoms of autonomic dysfunction in conditions such as long Covid, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and diabetes.

Autonomic dysfunctions can develop when the nerves of the autonomic system are damaged. Testing is normally done in a hospital and waiting periods can be long. The new aAP test means patients can self-manage their condition over time, as well as monitor the effectiveness of treatment prescribed by clinicians.

The aAP requires patients to take their blood pressure and heart rate at key times and in response to activities. The results give patients an understanding of what makes symptoms worse, meaning they can modify some of these triggers.

The research was led by Dr Manoj Sivan, Associate Professor in Leeds’ School of Medicine, and Research Lead for the Leeds Long Covid service.

Dr Sivan said: “There are two million individuals with long Covid in the UK and it is estimated more than a third of them might have altered functioning of the autonomic nervous system. This can present not only as feeling dizzy or racing of the heart but also as fatigue, exercise intolerance, brain fog, pain, bowel and bladder symptoms. This test gives people with long Covid easy access to diagnosis and monitor their own symptoms at home, and gives them reliable evidence of the situations that trigger their symptoms.”

Related

• Prof Christopher Mathias’s academic profile
• UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
• The adapted Autonomic Profile (aAP) home-based test for the evaluation of neuro-cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction

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