Persistent respiratory symptoms and lung function abnormalities in recovered patients of COVID-19

Background and objectives: COVID-19 is a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 which belongs to a family of coronaviruses. After the acute phase of illness, the majority of the patients recover quickly but, in some cases, symptoms can persist for a variable duration, bringing into light another entity known as post-COVID syndrome. The objective was to estimate the burden of various persistent respiratory symptoms and lung function abnormalities among recovered patients of COVID-19 and also to correlate them with initial disease severity, demographic factors and comorbidities.

Methods: Eighty-five post-COVID patients were recruited as per inclusion/exclusion criteria. Detailed history taking, physical examination and spirometry were done in all patients and data were correlated with baseline disease severity.

Results: Fatigue and breathlessness were the most common symptoms followed by cough, chest pain and fever. Persistent symptoms and their severity were significantly higher in severe/moderate cases. Spirometry was abnormal in 45.88% of subjects and the most common pattern was restrictive type. It was seen that the likelihood of persistent symptoms and abnormal lung function increased significantly with the severity of COVID-19, age, comorbidities, hospital stay duration and steroid/oxygen therapy.

Conclusion: The current study estimated the burden and array of various pulmonary sequelae encountered by post-COVID patients and elicited various risk factors associated with their occurrence after recovery from active infection. Awareness of these symptoms/sequelae and their risk factors is necessary for their follow-up and timely management, as the threat of this relatively new virus has still not abated.