There is a need of consensus about the pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in patients with COVID-19 after discharge from acute care. To facilitate the knowledge of the evidence and its translation into practice, we developed suggestions based on experts’ opinion. A steering committee identified areas and questions sent to experts. Other international experts participated to a RAND Delphi method in reaching consensus and proposing further suggestions. Strong agreement in suggestions was defined when the mean agreement was >7 (1 = no agreement and 9 = maximal agreement). Panelists response rate was >95%. Twenty-three questions from 4 areas: Personnel protection equipment, phenotypes, assessments, interventions, were identified and experts answered with 121 suggestions, 119 of which received high level of concordance. The evidence-based suggestions provide the clinicians with current evidence and clinical experts opinion. This framework can be used to facilitate clinical decision making within the context of the individual patient. Further studies will evaluate the clinical usefulness of these suggestions.

Recent scientific literature has investigated the cardiovascular implications of COVID-19. The mechanisms of cardiovascular damage seem to involve the protein angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), to which severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus-2 (CoV-2) binds to penetrate cells and other mechanisms, most of which are still under study. Cardiovascular sequelae of COVID-19 include heart failure, cardiomyopathy, acute coronary syndrome, arrhythmias, and venous thromboembolism. This article aims to collect scientific evidence by exploiting PubMed, Scopus, and Pedro databases to highlight the cardiovascular complications of COVID-19 and to define the physiotherapy treatment recommended for these patients. Exercise training (ET), an important part of cardiac rehabilitation, is a powerful tool in physiotherapy, capable of inducing significant changes in the cardiovascular system and functional in the recovery of endothelial dysfunction and for the containment of thromboembolic complications. In conclusion, due to the wide variety of possible exercise programs that can be obtained by combining intensity, duration, and speed in various ways, and by adjusting the program based on continuous patient monitoring, exercise training is well suited to the treatment of post-COVID patients with an impaired cardiovascular system of various degrees.

The migration phenomenon in recent years is assuming considerable proportions, so it is necessary to consider the need for health of migrant populations. The present work investigates, in particular, the rehabilitation need of the migrant populations. From the analysis of the literature about the incidence and prevalence of the diseases, two conditions of physiotherapy interest come to light: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the rehabilitation from torture outcomes. The analysis of the literature was carried out on the most important databases: PubMed, Scopus and PEDro. In PTSD relaxation techniques like BBAT appear to be essential. In chronic pain from torture, manual therapy, progressive exercises, balance training are recommended. Unfortunately, the rehabilitative intervention in no study is well clarified in terms of duration, frequency and type of exercise, so repeatability is definitely invalidated and the effectiveness of it continues to be uncertain.

The present work is based on a careful analysis of the literature in order to find out what the right type of exercise can be recommended to the patient with COPD. Starting from the basic assumption that exercise is itself a biological therapy, we have looked to molecules that are critically altered in these patients so as to constitute potential molecular markers. We have also seen if, how, and how much the exercise is able to determine a modulation of the levels of these molecules in a functional sense to improve the clinical condition of the patients.