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Clinical Epidemiology and Ageing

Identification of factors impairing exercise capacity after severe COVID-19 pulmonary infection: a 3-month follow-up of prospective COVulnerability cohort.

Baptista BRibeiro, d'Humières T, Schlemmer F, Bendib I, Justeau G, Al-Assaad L, Hachem M, Codiat R, Bardel B, Chakra LAbou, Belmondo T, Audureau E, Hue S, Mekontso-Dessap A, Derumeaux G, Boyer L Respir Res. 2022;23(1):68.

BACKGROUND: Patient hospitalized for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pulmonary infection can have sequelae such as impaired exercise capacity. We aimed to determine the frequency of long-term exercise capacity limitation in survivors of severe COVID-19 pulmonary infection and the factors associated with this limitation.

METHODS: Patients with severe COVID-19 pulmonary infection were enrolled 3 months after hospital discharge in COVulnerability, a prospective cohort. They underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing, pulmonary function test, echocardiography, and skeletal muscle mass evaluation.

RESULTS: Among 105 patients included, 35% had a reduced exercise capacity (VOpeak < 80% of predicted). Compared to patients with a normal exercise capacity, patients with reduced exercise capacity were more often men (89.2% vs. 67.6%, p = 0.015), with diabetes (45.9% vs. 17.6%, p = 0.002) and renal dysfunction (21.6% vs. 17.6%, p = 0.006), but did not differ in terms of initial acute disease severity. An altered exercise capacity was associated with an impaired respiratory function as assessed by a decrease in forced vital capacity (p < 0.0001), FEV1 (p < 0.0001), total lung capacity (p < 0.0001) and DL (p = 0.015). Moreover, we uncovered a decrease of muscular mass index and grip test in the reduced exercise capacity group (p = 0.001 and p = 0.047 respectively), whilst 38.9% of patients with low exercise capacity had a sarcopenia, compared to 10.9% in those with normal exercise capacity (p = 0.001). Myocardial function was normal with similar systolic and diastolic parameters between groups whilst reduced exercise capacity was associated with a slightly shorter pulmonary acceleration time, despite no pulmonary hypertension.

CONCLUSION: Three months after a severe COVID-19 pulmonary infection, more than one third of patients had an impairment of exercise capacity which was associated with a reduced pulmonary function, a reduced skeletal muscle mass and function but without any significant impairment in cardiac function.

MeSH terms: Aged; Cohort Studies; COVID-19; Echocardiography; Exercise Test; Exercise Tolerance; Female; Follow-Up Studies; France; Humans; Lung; Male; Middle Aged; Pneumonia; Prospective Studies; Respiratory Function Tests; Respiratory Insufficiency
DOI: 10.1186/s12931-022-01977-z