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. 2021 Oct-Dec;47(4):507-515.
doi: 10.12865/CHSJ.47.04.05. Epub 2021 Dec 31.

Long Term Respiratory Follow-Up for COVID-19 Patients a Multicenter Study

Daliborka Bursac  1 , Dimitris Petridis  2 , Bojan Zaric  1 , Tomi Kovacevic  1 , Vladimir Stojsic  1 , Tatjana Sarcev  1 , Haidong Huang  3 , Chong Bai  3 , Wolfgang Hohenforst-Schmidt  4 , Christoforos Kosmidis  5 , Konstantinos Sapalidis  5 , Konstantinos Romanidis  6 , Nikolaos Courcoutsakis  7 , Aimilios Lallas  8 , Giorgos Tsakaldimis  9 , Kyriakoula Chatzimichael  10 , Chrysanthi Sardeli  11 , Dimitris Matthaios  12 , Paul Zarogoulidis  5   13   14 , Chrysanthi Karapantzou  15
Affiliations

Long Term Respiratory Follow-Up for COVID-19 Patients a Multicenter Study

Daliborka Bursac et al. Curr Health Sci J. 2021 Oct-Dec.

Abstract

Background: The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic initiated officially in October 2020. Since then several observations have been made regarding the disease and its symptoms.

Patients and methods: We included eighty seven in our observational study. Our main aim was to investigate their long term respiratory follow-up in correlation with their initial radiological and laboratory findings and values. The nose swab PCR test for COVID-19 was used for diagnosis. Patients were monitored at 3 and 6 months after their hospital reception whereas basic parameters of health condition (smoking, PO2, SPO2, WBC, CXR, CRP, intercurrent findings, days of nursing, colchicine administration) in joint with gender and age were recorded.

Results: Males seem more susceptible to the viral disease than females in a ratio 1,8:1. The parameters FEV1 and FVC (as % relative changes) were not affected, apart from the DLCO to which CRP (in loge+1 transformation) and SPO2 showed a statistically significant effect.

Conclusion: None of these patients were intubated, or admitted to the intensive care unit. The respiratory function is affected by the virus and the effect is reversed within the first three months. Males are more affected and the radiological and laboratory findings are associated with the respiratory functions.

Keywords: COVID-19; DLCO; FEV1; FVC; respiratory functions; respiratory infection.

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Conflict of interest statement

None to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Respironics system that can perform spirometry, DLCO measurement and FeNO measurement
Figure 2
Figure 2
CT of the thorax of a patient diagnosed upon admission with Covid-19, ground glass opacities can be easily observed throughout the lung parenchyma. This patient did not have respiratory distress
Figure 3
Figure 3
Size frequency distribution of % relative FEV1 changes and mean % relative change at two time intervals
Figure 4
Figure 4
Size frequency distribution of % relative FVC changes and mean % relative change at two-time intervals
Figure 5
Figure 5
Size frequency distribution of % relative DLCO changes and mean % relative change at two time intervals
Figure 6
Figure 6
Statistical output of a multiple regression analysis of DLCO % relative response against the parameters under study. The results are based on the forward selection of predictors
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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