Hair loss in females and thromboembolism in males are significantly enriched in post-acute sequelae of COVID (PASC) relative to recent medical history

After one year of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 130 million individuals worldwide have been infected with the novel coronavirus, yet the post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), also referred to as the ‘long COVID’ syndrome, remains mostly uncharacterized. We leveraged machine-augmented curation of the physician notes from electronic health records (EHRs) across the multi-state Mayo Clinic health system to retrospectively contrast the occurrence of symptoms and diseases in COVID-19 patients in the post-COVID period relative to the pre-COVID period (n=6,413). Through comparison of the frequency of 10,039 signs and symptoms before and after diagnosis, we identified an increase in hypertensive chronic kidney disease (OR 47.3, 95% CI 23.9-93.6, p=3.50×10−9), thromboembolism (OR 3.84, 95% CI 3.22-4.57, p=1.18×10−4), and hair loss (OR 2.44, 95% CI 2.15-2.76, p=8.46×10−3) in COVID-19 patients three to six months after diagnosis. The sequelae associated with long COVID were notably different among male vs female patients and patients above vs under 55 years old, with the hair loss enrichment found primarily in females and the thromboembolism enrichment in males. These findings compel targeted investigations into what may be persistent dermatologic, cardiovascular, and coagulopathic phenotypes following SARS-CoV-2 infection.