Table 1.
Socio-demographic data, body temperature (BT), and oxygen saturation (SpO2) in healthy controls (HC) and long COVID patients classified according to peak body temperature (BT), oxygen saturation (SpO2), and neurotoxicity (NT) index as long COVID with high (high TO-NT) versus low (low TO-NT) levels of these biomarkers.
| Variables | HC (n = 39) A | Low TO-NT (n = 56) B | High TO-NT (n = 30) C | F/X2 | df | p |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (years) | 28.3 (7.6) | 27.6 (5.4) | 29.8 (7.3) | 1.15 | 2/122 | 0.320 |
| Sex (M/F) | 42/15 | 40/16 | 22/8 | 1.42 | 2 | 0.512 |
| Marital state (Ma/S) | 22/17 | 31/25 | 18/12 | 0.18 | 2 | 0.946 |
| Smoking (Y/N) | 13/26 | 16/40 | 11/19 | 0.64 | 2 | 0.732 |
| Residency (U/R) | 31/8 | 46/10 | 25/5 | 0.19 | 2 | 0.914 |
| Vaccination (A/Pf/S) | 9/21/9 | 14/31/11 | 6/17/7 | 0.42 | 4 | 0.979 |
| BMI (Kg/m2) | 25.60 (3.97) | 25.71 (3.74) | 26.96 (5.75) | 0.99 | 2/122 | 0.372 |
| Education (years) | 15.0 (1.3) | 15.7 (1.8) | 15.5 (1.7) | 2.73 | 2/122 | 0.069 |
| Peak BT (℃) | 36.86 (0.25) B,C | 38.20 (0.64) A,C | 39.31 (0.83) A,B | 138.38 | 2/122 | <0.001 |
| Lowest SpO2 (%) | 95.08 (1.52) B,C | 92.41 (2.74) A,C | 88.27 (4.62) A,B | 42.81 | 2/122 | <0.001 |
| TO2 index (z scores) | −1.01 (0.240) B,C | 0.054 (0.52) A,C | 1.21 (0.86) A,B | 131.43 | 2/122 | <0.001 |
| Composite NT (z score) | −0.595 (0.85) B,C | −0.143 (0.80) A,C | 1.04 (0.66) A,B | 37.91 | 2/122 | <0.001 |
Results are shown as means (SD). F: results of analysis of variance; X2: analysis of contingency tables, df: degrees of freedom. A,B,C: Results of pairwise comparisons among group means. TO-NT: (T) temperature, (O) oxygen saturation, (NT) neurotoxic index. M: male, F: female, Ma: married, S: single, U: urban, R: rural, BMI: body mass index, A: AstraZeneca, Pf: Pfizer, S: Sinopharm, Y: yes, N: no. TO2 index computed as z BT—z SpO2; neurotoxicity (NT) computed as a z unit-based composite score.