Background
Despite the growing concerns related to the potential of long-term pulmonary sequelae due to COVID-19, data about intermediate and long-term changes in the respiratory function of patients who recover is relatively sparse, particularly in developing countries.
Objectives
To assess the characteristics and pulmonary function at follow-up in a sample of Ecuadorian patients that recovered from the virus.
Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional study that included 43 patients after symptomatic COVID infection, who were evaluated by spirometry, single breath DLCO, and 6MWT. For statistical analysis we performed point biserial correlations, and chi squared tests.
Results
Overall, 30.3% of patients (n = 13) reported persistent symptoms, with fatigue being the most common (23.3%, n = 10). Around 34.9% (n = 15) of the sample had a restrictive spirometry pattern, 18.6% (n = 8) had an abnormally decreased adjusted DLCO. A restrictive spirometry pattern was associated with an abnormally low adjusted DLCO (χ
2
(2) = 11,979,
p
= 0.001).
Conclusion
We found that a considerable proportion of patients presented with persistent symptoms and alterations in pulmonary function following COVID-19, mainly a restrictive respiratory pattern and abnormally low DLCO. Further studies are needed to determine which patients may benefit from the follow-up with specific pulmonary function tests.
Physicians are observing persisting symptoms and unexpected organ dysfunction after severe COVID‐19. In this report, we present the follow‐up of two cases of suspected interstitial lung disease following the viral infection. Up to the last month of follow‐up, both patients presented with persistent changes in imaging and pulmonary function tests.
Coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has spread rapidly to the world. The disease can vary from mild cases to severe respiratory distress; this may increase rapidly and overwhelm the pediatric intensive care units. Lately, there have been various reports about a de novo multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children or pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. We classified the disease into 2 spectrums: the acute phase in severely ill patients and the postinflammatory phase. Neither of them could be classified as mild because there is enough evidence that supports a wide range of complications. The goals of this brief review were to summarize available literature and to give some awareness about the current status of the coronavirus disease 2019 in the severely ill patients during the active phase and postinflammatory phase.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.