it s thought that 1.3 million people in the uk are living with long covid and hundreds of thousands of them experience breathlessness. traditional lung scans often appear to be normal though. but researchers in oxford are using a different technique in a clinical trial. they hope that understanding the problem will lead to better treatment options. 0ur health correspondent, catharine burns reports flo van diemen van thor was never one forjust sitting down inside, but she says long covid has been a horror show. it was not just a breathlessness, that was really hard. it was muscle weakness, so legs like jelly and just thinking if i try to go down the stairs they might not carry me. and i found that really hard to live with on a mental level. i found that really distressing. but this is the ct scan of flo s lungs and like so many long covid patients, everything looks normal and healthy. i thought, well, the technology is letting us down! laughs. these are my lungs, i ve
had them all my life. i know there s something wrong with them. there is still so much we don t know about long covid. flo is taking part in a study in oxford. breathe in, and out. researchers think they re the first in the world to be able to show abnormalities in the lungs of long covid patients. flo and the other volunteers have an mri scan as they suck in xenon gas. it behaves like oxygen and should cross from their lungs into the bloodstream. the numbers are small so far 36 patients, 11 who didn t need hospital care when they were first infected but went on to get long covid. it s a very exciting and very encouraging first step. so what we have here is one of the patients from our trial, and the ct scan is entirely normal. they ve then gone on and had a xenon gas mri, and xenon
and there are strategies that we re putting in place that really are making a difference. and breathe out. lovely, really good, really good. flo says this was the turning point for her learning breathing techniques with a respiratory physiotherapist. try and slow. it might take her longer to recover after exercise now, but she s moved up a level in karate. she s not back to normal yet but thinks she will get there. catherine burns, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news. the us warns that the russian troop build up near ukraine is the largest since the cold war as attempts to find a diplomatic solution continue. the downing street lockdown parties report is now expected to be delivered before the metropolitan police inquiry ends. five states declare emergencies and more than 5,000 flights are cancelled, as the us east coast braces for a major blizzard to hit the region.