University Hospitals of Derby & Burton Nhs Foundation Trust

Following an infection with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2), one in ten people will experience persisting symptoms, or develop symptoms which can last for months and even years. These symptoms affect people in different ways and have been demonstrated to broadly impact physical, mental, and cognitive health. This is called Long COVID. Currently, there are no treatments available to address the issues that patients experience but anti-viral medications have been suggested as being potentially effective. This study will recruit patients that have confirmed long COVID and participants will undertake a series of tests to determine their symptoms and the impact that their condition has had on their bodily systems. The total duration of each participant's involvement is approximately 8 weeks, and this will involve 13 visits (15 visits if taking part in Exeter) at the closest study location (Derby or Exeter). Initial assessments are conducted over three separate visits and then all participants will be scheduled to receive five consecutive days of a medication that has been identified as having the potential to reduce the impact of Long COVID. Following a period of 28 days, participants will be invited to repeat the same tests that were conducted before receiving the medication so that it can be determined how well the drug has worked. In this study we are specifically collecting information to understand how feasible this medication could be to help patients improve their condition and this will help us to determine how likely this drug is able to be used within the wider Long COVID community.
The medication that will be used within this study is an existing anti-viral medication (Remdesivir). If we find patients are able to tolerate the treatment and the research tasks we will use this information to conduct a larger trial to determine how well this drug can be used to reduce the impact of Long COVID in a greater number of patients.

The aim of the research study is to look at a new type of MRI scanning that can measure the amount of sodium in different parts of the body. Sodium (or 'salt') levels are very important in maintaining health, and high levels lead to high blood pressure. This is very important to patients with kidney disease, as the kidney is the main organ that regulates the amount of sodium in the body. It is possible to measure blood sodium levels, but this does not tell us how much sodium is present in other areas of the body. Previously, it has not been possible measure this. Sodium MRI (Na-MRI) is a new type of MRI scanning that can directly measure sodium in other parts of body such as skin, muscles, kidneys, and brain. The investigators believe that this will help to guide treatment in patients with kidney disease who are on haemodialysis, research studies are needed to prove the benefits.