Persistent IgG anti-cardiolipin autoantibodies are associated with post-covid syndrome

Bertin, Daniel; Kaphan, Elsa; Weber, Samuel; Babacci, Benjamin; Arcani, Robin; Faucher, Benoit; Ménard, Amélie; Brodovitch, Alexandre; Mege, Jean Louis; Bardin, Nathalie

Persistence of various symptoms in patients who recovered from COVID-19 was recently defined as long COVID or post-COVID syndrome (PCS). We report a case of a 58-year-old woman who, although recovering from COVID-19, has novel and persistent symptoms such as neurological complications, not explained by another cause apart from PCS. In addition to a low inflammatory response, we found a persistence of IgG aCL positivity and eosinopenia, one year after the COVID-19 acute infection, both previously defined as independent factors associated with disease severity. The pathophysiological mechanism of PCS is not known, but the possibility of persistence of the virus, especially in the nervous system, could be suggested, with a post-infectious inflammatory or autoimmune reaction.