Coronavirus Pneumonia: Outcomes and Characteristics of Patients in an Inner-City Area after 3 Months of Infection

Abstract

Background: The morbidity and long term pulmonary consequences of COVID-19 infection continue to unfold as we learn and follow survivors of this disease. We report radiological evolution and pulmonary function findings in those patients. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of adult patients referred to the post-acute COVID-19 pulmonary clinic after a diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia. The study period was after the initial peak of the pandemic in New York City, from June to December 2020. Results: 111 patients were included. The average interval time between COVID-19 pneumonia and initial clinic evaluation was 12 weeks. 48.2% of patients had moderate and 22.3% had severe infection. Dyspnea and cough was the most common respiratory symptoms post infection. Radiographic abnormalities improved in majority of patients with ground glass opacities been the common residual abnormal finding. Restrictive airway disease and decreased diffusion capacity were the most common findings in pulmonary function test. Conclusion: Our study suggests the needs for close and serial monitoring of functional and radiological abnormalities during the post COVID-19 period. Considering that many of the clinical-radiological and functional abnormalities are reversible, we suggest a “wait and watch“approach to avoid unnecessary invasive work up.

Prevalence, risk factors and treatments for post-COVID-19 breathlessness: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Substantial heterogeneity across studies was observed in each of the three meta-analyses (I 2 =98.8%, 97.4% and 95.9%, respectively; p<0.001). ASADI-POOYA [24] AUL [91] AYDIN [65] BALDINI [62] FERNÁNDEZ-DE-LAS-PEÑAS [105] SUÁREZ-ROBLES [128] DARCIS [101] DREYER [103] ZAYET [137] YOMOGIDA [34] VENTURELLI [135] VARGHESE [134] TAYLOR [131] TAWFIK [14] SZEKELY [66] SULTANA [129] STAVEM [127] SONNWEBER [58] RIGHI [123] PELUSO [13] O'SULLIVAN [122] O'KEEFE [121] NAIK [54] MOTIEJUNAITE [64] MECHI [44] MALLIA [115] KLEIN [111] GABER [106] EROL [25] DIAZ-FUENTES [102] DANKOWSKI [100] CARFI [96] CORTÉS-TELLES [69] CARVALHO-SCHNEIDER [97] BOARI [94] VIJAYAKUMAR [65] Total (I 2 =95.9%, p<0.001) ZHANG [39] D'CRUZ [35] D'CRUZ [35] TODT [132] TAYLOR [131] SKJORTEN [38] DAYNES [10] APARISI [26] DE GRAAF [61] YIN …”

“…The influential analysis indicated no single study had a major impact on the pooled prevalence estimate (supplementary table 3). [63] BALDINI [62] BELL [92] DARCIS [101] CARFI [96] CARVALHO-SCHNEIDER [97] CORTÉS-TELLES [59] DANKOWSKI [100] DIAZ-FUENTES [102] DREYER [103] EROL [25] GABER [106] GALVÁN-TEJADA [19] ÇALIK KÜTÜKCÜ [95] BOARI [94] MORADIAN [117] MEIJE [56] MAHMUD [114] LANDI [112] JACOBS [109] KLEIN [111] MALLIA [115] COMEBAC STUDY GROUP [85] MOTIEJUNAITE [64] GHOSN [11] GARRIGUES [53] FORTINI [36] BLOMBERG [93] ARNOLD [89] AUGUSTIN [90] ARMANAGE [88] SUÁREZ-ROBLES [128] VIJAYAKUMAR [65] VARGHESE [134] VENTURELLI [135] Subtotal (I 2 =97.8%, p<0.001) Heterogeneity between groups: p=0.014 ZHAO [138] TOSATO [133] SZEKELY [66] TAWLIK [14] TAYLOR [131] SUN [130] SHOUCRI [126] SULTANA [129] STAVEM [127] SONNWEBER ...…”

Pulmonary function 3–6 months after acute COVID-19: A systematic review and multicentre cohort study

“…Results of all included studies can be found in Table S1 . All studies included a population with a mean or median age between 47 and 66 years and most studies had an equal distribution of males and females.The majority of the studies were conducted in Europe (n = 26) [ [3] , [4] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] , [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] , [46] , [47] , [48] , [49] , [50] , [51] , [52] , [53] , [54] , [55] , [56] , [57] , [58] ],49,51,56,60,62,65,66,67,69,70,74,76,77,79,80,81,83,84], six were conducted in North America [ [59] , [60] , [61] , [62] , [63] , [64] ], four in South America [ [65] , [66] , [67] , [68] ] and eleven in Asia [ [16] , [17] , [69] , [70] , [71] , [72] , [73] , [74] , [75] , [76] , [77] ]. The population of the studies varied between 17 and 1733 with a mean of 177 participants.…”

“…This study showed that age and severe acute COVID-19 were independently associated with a decrease in DLCO at 3–6 months following COVID-19. Other studies [ 16 , 17 , 39 , 40 ] confirm the association of severe acute COVID-19 and decreased DLCO at follow up, although Fortini et al [ 41 ] and Diaz-Fuentes [ 61 ] did not find an association between severe acute COVID-19 and decreased DLCO. This might be explained by the patient selection since no patients who were admitted to the ICU were included in the cohort of Fortini et al and 20.7% of the included patients were asymptomatic at 3 months post COVID-19 in the cohort of Diaz-Fuentes et al…”