Azola, Alba, Dastgheyb, Raha M, Easter, Rebecca et al. · Journal of general internal medicine · 2025 · DOI
Researchers tested a scoring tool called the PASC score to see if it could correctly identify long COVID patients. They compared 130 long COVID patients with 60 people who recovered completely from COVID-19. The PASC score was very accurate at confirming who had long COVID, but missed about 20% of actual patients. A simpler approach using just three symptoms (loss of smell/taste, post-exertional malaise, or sexual dysfunction) worked even better at catching long COVID cases.
Accurate diagnostic tools are essential for long COVID and ME/CFS identification, as both conditions currently lack biomarkers. This research provides evidence for a validated screening instrument and suggests that a simpler three-symptom approach may be more clinically practical, potentially improving access to diagnosis and care for affected patients.
This study does not establish causation or understand why these specific symptoms are associated with long COVID. Being cross-sectional, it captures a single time point and cannot determine how the PASC score performs in early disease or whether it predicts long-term outcomes. The study's demographic homogeneity (79% White, 77% college-educated) may limit generalizability to more diverse populations.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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