What research is currently being done to work out the relationship between hypoxia and COVID-19?
There are many bodies who are looking into this. I know there are some researchers around the world who are identifying, especially in the critical care setting, the mechanism of hypoxemia in these individuals. Part of these studies involves looking at what happens to lung physiology in these patients.
ARDS, acute respiratory distress syndrome, is one of the pathways for individuals to develop severe COVID-19 and end up on ventilators. In those situations, the lungs are very stiff, requiring higher pressures and higher oxygen levels to improve the hypoxemia. In other COVID-19 patients, the lungs are not as stiff, but oxygen levels are low.
This is all being looked at. I cannot cite any specific investigator or any one organization that is looking into this. It is a worldwide collaboration to determine the mechanisms of the disease and what happens in the lungs, the blood vessels, and the brain. This virus affects parts of the body that are typically not affected by most viruses.
In terms of research, we have seen significant cooperation and an increase in collaboration and communication across the scientific community worldwide. Scientists are trying to come up with answers quickly.
Sometimes this is coming out as misinformation and can be misleading, but this is just because everything with this virus is in the moment and we are waiting for more information to come in. We have collaborated well, but we do have to wait and see what the ultimate answers are within a larger data set.