New research in Scientific Reports reveals that COVID-19 survivors, especially those who had severe or critical illness, face long-term lung complications and a reduced quality of life. The study recommends 6-monthly pulmonary function tests for these survivors to monitor for chronic lung damage.
By Dr. Liji Thomas, MDOct 15 2023Reviewed by Sophia Coveney The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic overwhelmed the healthcare systems in many countries with large numbers of acutely ill patients. However, as months passed, chronic sequelae came to be recognized.
Similarly, 30 to 70% of survivors also report reduced mental health and a lower quality of life. In view of this, survivorship clinics were set up to manage those with lung-related symptoms after discharge from ICU care. However, there was little guidance on how many other non-ICU patients might need such follow-up and for how long.
About 75% had never smoked nor had pre-existing chronic lung disease. Of the rest, that is, six patients, four had asthma, one had obstructive sleep apnea, and one had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease . Restrictive ventilatory defects could be due to obesity more than fibrotic lung changes because of COVID-19, as earlier studies show. Obstructive PFT results were due to pre-existing obstructive conditions.
In most cases, the earliest PFT showed the abnormality. Encouragingly, patients with normal PFTs had a low risk of future lung complications. New abnormalities were rarely reported on their chest X-rays, and they were unlikely to need repeat PFTs. The researchers also found that patients with severe or critical COVID-19 tended to have the lowest quality of life, corroborating the findings of earlier studies.
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