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Residual respiratory impairment after COVID-19 pneumonia

2021; BioMed Central; Volume: 21; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1186/s12890-021-01594-4

1471-2466

Francesco Lombardi, Angelo Calabrese, Bruno Iovene, Chiara Pierandrei, Marialessia Lerede, Francesco Varone, Luca Richeldi, Giacomo Sgalla, Francesco Landi, Elisa Gremese, Roberto Bernabei, Massimo Fantoni, Antonio Gasbarrini, Carlo Romano Settanni, Francesca Benvenuto, Giulia Bramato, Angelo Carfì, Francesca Ciciarello, Maria Rita Lo Monaco, Anna Maria Martone, Emanuele Marzetti, Carmen Napolitano, Francesco Pagano, Sara Rocchi, Elisabetta Rota, Andrea Salerno, Matteo Tosato, Marcello Tritto, Riccardo Calvani, Lucio Catalano, Anna Picca, Giulia Savera, Enrica Tamburrini, Alberto Borghetti, Simona Di Gianbenedetto, Rita Murri, Antonella Cingolani, G. Ventura, Eleonora Taddei, Davide Moschese, Arturo Ciccullo, Leonardo Stella, Giovanni Addolorato, Francesco Franceschi, Geltrude Mingrone, Maria Assunta Zocco, Mauirizio Sanguinetti, Paola Cattani, Simona Marchetti, Alessandro Bizzarro, Alessandra Lauria, Stanislao Rizzo, Maria Cristina Savastano, Gloria Gambini, Maria Grazia Cozzupoli, Carola Culiersi, Giulio Cesare Passàli, Gaetano Paludetti, Jacopo Galli, Fabrizio Crudo, Giovanni Di Cintio, Ylenia Longobardi, Laura Tricarico, Mariaconsiglia Santantonio, Danilo Buonsenso, Piero Valentini, Davide Pata, Davide Sinatti, Cristina De Rose, Luca Richeldi, Francesco Lombardi, Aangelo Calabrese, Gabriele Sani, Delfina Janiri, Giulia Giuseppin, Marzia Molinaro, Marco Modica, Luigi Natale, Anna Rita Larici, Riccardo Marano, Annamaria Paglionico, Luca Petricca, Laura Gigante, G. Natalello, Anna Laura Fedele, Marco Maria Lizzio, Angelo Santoliquido, L. Santoro, Antonio Nesci, Valentina Popolla,

COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies

The novel coronavirus SARS-Cov-2 can infect the respiratory tract causing a spectrum of disease varying from mild to fatal pneumonia, and known as COVID-19. Ongoing clinical research is assessing the potential for long-term respiratory sequelae in these patients. We assessed the respiratory function in a cohort of patients after recovering from SARS-Cov-2 infection, stratified according to PaO2/FiO2 (p/F) values.Approximately one month after hospital discharge, 86 COVID-19 patients underwent physical examination, arterial blood gas (ABG) analysis, pulmonary function tests (PFTs), and six-minute walk test (6MWT). Patients were also asked to quantify the severity of dyspnoea and cough before, during, and after hospitalization using a visual analogic scale (VAS). Seventy-six subjects with ABG during hospitalization were stratified in three groups according to their worst p/F values: above 300 (n = 38), between 200 and 300 (n = 30) and below 200 (n = 20).On PFTs, lung volumes were overall preserved yet, mean percent predicted residual volume was slightly reduced (74.8 ± 18.1%). Percent predicted diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO) was also mildly reduced (77.2 ± 16.5%). Patients reported residual breathlessness at the time of the visit (VAS 19.8, p < 0.001). Patients with p/F below 200 during hospitalization had lower percent predicted forced vital capacity (p = 0.005), lower percent predicted total lung capacity (p = 0.012), lower DLCO (p < 0.001) and shorter 6MWT distance (p = 0.004) than patients with higher p/F.Approximately one month after hospital discharge, patients with COVID-19 can have residual respiratory impairment, including lower exercise tolerance. The extent of this impairment seems to correlate with the severity of respiratory failure during hospitalization.