Though the pandemic has been 正式宣布结束, many people are left with lingering health issues after getting the COVID-19 virus. 有一种疾病, 神经异常, has become common among patients with long COVID and other pre-existing conditions.
Dysautonomia is an umbrella term for a series of disorders that impact the function of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS regulates our involuntary functions such as heart rate, 呼吸, 血液流动和消化, 等.
事实上, the growing number of patients with 神经异常 prompted 皇冠hga025大学洛杉矶分校健康 to establish a 神经异常 task force to ensure patients received the proper treatment.
Dysautonomia treatment facilities are a rare find
皇冠hga025大学洛杉矶分校健康’s newly assembled 神经异常 task force makes it one of just a few places on the West Coast that offers full-scale treatment for the illness.
威廉皮特曼，医学博士, internal medicine specialist and 皇冠hga025大学洛杉矶分校健康 extensivist, said treating 神经异常 is different for each patient.
“It takes a village to treat 神经异常, and the piecemeal approach where they see this person over here and that person over there doesn’t really work,” Dr. 皮特曼说.
他继续说, “Putting together a comprehensive clinic with a multidisciplinary approach where everybody works together is ideal for this disorder and it just doesn’t exist in Southern California.
UCLA dietitians prompt multidisciplinary task force
南希·杰夫，硕士，注册会计师她是美国食品和药物管理局的首席营养师 UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of 消化系统疾病, and her colleagues noticed they were getting a lot of referrals for patients who were diagnosed with 神经异常.
“We kept ending up with patients who were either coming straight to us or they were going to a GI doctor (gastroenterologist), getting diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome and ended up with us,杰夫说。. “然而, we knew there were other things going on when they would talk about their blood pressure dropping or having trouble 呼吸.
“We reached out to cardiology and neurology and that’s how we ended up building this task force,杰夫说。. “Now, we have a team of over 20 doctors, dietitians and nurses at UCLA. Before, these patients didn’t have a referral network. Now we are that referral network.”
自主神经异常的常见形式
There are at least 15 disorders that fall under the umbrella of 神经异常. The most common is postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), according to Dr. 皮特曼. POTS is a condition in which patients experience lightheadedness or palpitations due to an increase in their heart rate going from a laying to a standing position – sometimes to as high as 120 or more beats per minute, frequently resulting in difficulty performing routine daily activities such as bathing or cooking.
Prior to the pandemic, POTS was diagnosed in roughly 3 million Americans. Now, in a post-pandemic era, it affects close to 6 million Americans.
“We see a frequent number of POTS patients and then we also see a number of patients with orthostatic hypotension,” Dr. 皮特曼说. “That is when the blood pressure drops upon standing.”
自主神经障碍可以治愈吗?
Some types of 神经异常 are more extreme than others. This means there is not one specific treatment that can alleviate the illness.
“It depends on the severity,” said Jaffe. “People can have minor or severe forms of it. We had a couple of patients recently with long COVID where POTS was the main manifestation. Once we got their hydration, sodium levels and blood pressure regulated they got better. So, yes, we’ve seen it go into remission but it depends on each person’s medical needs.”
The UCLA Dysautonomia Task Force’ loosely named by Jaffe, is not an official service line, but Dr. 皮特曼 foresees the growth and importance of the medical unit.
“In terms of where we see this going, its purpose is to create that village of a multidisciplinary clinic or a multispecialty clinic in what’s called a ‘hub and spoke’ model where the patient sees one central person who then refers them out to the appropriate people,” Dr. 皮特曼说.
“那, 在一天结束的时候, everybody is coming together to treat the patient in an integrated approach.”
