EVALUATION OF PULMONARY COMPLICATIONS IN POST COVID PATIENTS

Abstract

Pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), both common COVID-19 symptoms, can result in pulmonary sequelae such as pulmonary fibrosis [2, 3]. Short-term pulmonary sequelae have been described in cohorts of patients followed up between 3 and 6 months after discharge, and range from mild respiratory impairment with moderately reduced DLCO in asymptomatic patients to more severe restrictive ventilatory
dysfunction in patients suffering from persistent pulmonary symptoms, primarily exertional dyspnea.A shortterm follow-up may not be sufficient to assess the long-term prognosis of respiratory dysfunction; consequently, longer-term investigations are necessary. According to preliminary data from Chinese cohorts, up to 47 percent of patients had residual abnormalities on pulmonary Computed Tomography (CT) scans taken one year after the pneumonia, with ground glass attenuation and reticular abnormalities being the most common radiologic patterns [7]. Furthermore, when 6 to 12-month followup radiological exams were compared, fibrotic interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA) and traction bronchiectasis remained constant, whereas non-fibrotic ILA were totally or partially eliminated [8]. The largest 1-year follow-up study available to date, conducted in Wuhan, China, found a prevalence of lung diffusion impairment of up to 54 percent in critically sick patients, as well as a considerable burden of symptoms, with 30 percent of patients still complaining of dyspnea [9]. Large observational studies onlong-term pulmonary sequeale in European cohorts, however, are still lacking. The purpose of this study is to evaluate pulmonary complications in post covid patients