Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jul;18(7):577-584.
doi: 10.2217/fca-2022-0017. Epub 2022 Jun 6.

Obese patients with long COVID-19 display abnormal hyperventilatory response and impaired gas exchange at peak exercise

Mickael Rejaudry Lacavalerie  1   2 , Sandrine Pierre-Francois  3 , Moustapha Agossou  4 , Jocelyn Inamo  2   5 , André Cabie  3   6 , José Luis Barnay  7 , Rémi Neviere  2   5
Affiliations

Obese patients with long COVID-19 display abnormal hyperventilatory response and impaired gas exchange at peak exercise

Mickael Rejaudry Lacavalerie et al. Future Cardiol. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

Aim: To analyze the impact of obesity on cardiopulmonary response to exercise in people with chronic post-COVID-19 syndrome. Patients & methods: Consecutive subjects with chronic post-COVID syndrome 6 months after nonsevere acute infection were included. All patients received a complete clinical evaluation, lung function tests and cardiopulmonary exercise testing. A total of 51 consecutive patients diagnosed with chronic post-COVID-19 were enrolled in this study. Results: More than half of patients with chronic post-COVID-19 had a significant alteration in aerobic exercise capacity (VO2peak) 6 months after hospital discharge. Obese long-COVID-19 patients also displayed a marked reduction of oxygen pulse (O2pulse). Conclusion: Obese patients were more prone to have pathological pulmonary limitation and pulmonary gas exchange impairment to exercise compared with nonobese COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: aerobic capacity (VO2); chronic post-COVID-19 syndrome; hyperventilation; obesity; oxygen pulse; pulse oxymetry.

Plain language summary

In this study, the cardiopulmonary response to exercise in people with chronic post-COVID-19 syndrome was analyzed. More than half of patients diagnosed with chronic post-COVID-19 had reduced exercise capacity 6 months after hospital discharge. In addition, patients with chronic post-COVID-19 syndrome who were overweight or obese displayed exaggerated hyperventilation along with an impairment of oxygenation at peak exercise.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Williamson EJ, Walker AJ, Bhaskaran K et al. Factors associated with COVID-19-related death using OpenSAFELY. Nature 584, 430–436 (2020). - PMC - PubMed

    2. •• Large scale study on factors associated with death in COVID-19.

    1. Lockhart SM, O'Rahilly S. When two pandemics meet: why is obesity associated with increased COVID-19 mortality? Med (NY) 1(1), 33–42 (2020). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sattar N, McInnes IB, McMurray JJV. Obesity a risk factor for severe COVID-19 infection: multiple potential mechanisms. Circulation 142, 4–6 (2020). - PubMed

    2. •• Large scale study on obesity as a risk factor of severe COVID-19 infection.

    1. Simonnet A, Chetboun M, Poissy J et al. High prevalence of obesity in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) requiring invasive mechanical ventilation. Obesity (Silver Spring) 28, 1195–1199 (2020). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nalbandian A, Sehgal K, Gupta A et al. Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome. Nat. Med. 27, 601–615 (2021). - PMC - PubMed

    2. •• Definitions of post-COVID-19 conditions.