Houston Doctors Investigating Why Some COVID-19 Patients Develop Massively Enlarged Tongues
Dr. James Melville, DDS, with the UTHealth School of Dentistry, along with other Houston doctors, have been investigating why some COVID-19 patients develop massively enlarged tongues, a condition also known as macroglossia.
Last fall, Dr. Melville was first introduced to the side effect when one man and another case made their way to his office. Since, Dr. Melville has heard of about seven more patients. Out of the nine cases, each patient, who are all Black, was intubated in a hospital. Two of the nine suffered strokes and the other seven were hospitalized with coronavirus prior to developing macroglossia.
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Dr. Melville, who worked alongside Dr. Dominik Rudecki, DDS, Dr. Mark Wong, DDS, and Dr. John Guenther, DDS, says those patients who survived the virus had inflammatory cells in their tongue tissue, meaning the virus does something to make certain patients more prone to the rare condition. Subsequently, Dr. Melville and his colleagues are conducting a study to understand the issue and find a common link the patients’ genes so to prevent future cases.
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