electroCore, Inc. (NASDAQ: ECOR) shares barely move at the open Thursday, on announcing the Mayo Clinic is initiating an investigator-initiated study to assess the efficacy of gammaCore Sapphire non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) in patients with post-COVID syndrome.

Post-COVID syndrome, also known as Long COVID, is a collection of symptoms that persist greater than 28 days after the initial onset of symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID) infection.

These symptoms, such as headache, brain fog, fatigue and gastric distress can bear a striking resemblance to the “central sensitization syndromes,” a group that includes fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).

Post-COVID syndrome is likely to occur in upwards of 10% of the population who has been infected with COVID, likely affecting hundreds of millions across the world.

The study entitled “Outcomes of treatment with non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation (nVNS) in post-COVID syndrome: A Pilot Study,” is a randomized, single-center, controlled trial enrolling up to 20 subjects recruited from the Post-COVID Care Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Endpoints of the study include a number of clinical questionnaires including the Post-COVID Functional Status Score, as well as an analysis of blood samples for certain chemokines, and positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) of the brain to evaluate brain metabolism.

Said Chief Medical Officer Peter Staats,“Long-COVID represents a significant ongoing medical challenge that can extend long after the acute phase of COVID.”

ECOR opened Thursday trading up 0.01% to 53 cents.