Исследование способности задерживать дыхание у взрослых лиц, перенесших COVID-19

Abstract

Breath-holding tests are a simple way to determine the state of the respiratory system in patients with respiratory pathology. The aim of this study was to evaluate voluntary breath-holding time in COVID-19 survivors, taking into account the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Materials and methods. The study involved patients aged 46 to 84 years with a complication in the form of bilateral multisegmental pneumonia after COVID-19 who were admitted for aftercare to the second stage respiratory rehabilitation department of the Central City Clinical Hospital in Kaliningrad. The subjects were divided into urban and rural residents, as well as by age and sex, presence of concomitant diseases and degree of damage to the lung tissue (based on computed tomography data). Voluntary inspiratory breath-holding time was estimated. Results. All of the patients after COVID-19 (n = 367) showed decreased voluntary inspiratory breath-holding time (mean value 16.9 ± 6.7 s). The degree of damage to the lung tissue had a significant negative impact on voluntary inspiratory breath-holding time, irrespective of the patients’ sex, age, place of residence and concomitant diseases: patients with less than 50 % lung tissue involvement (n = 164) on average held their breath significantly longer (by 17 %, p < 0.001) than patients with more than 50 % lung tissue involvement (n = 203). Men (n = 125) were able to hold their breath longer (by 23 %, p < 0.05) than women (n = 242), while patients from rural areas (n = 91) longer (by 26 %, p = 0.004) than urban residents (n = 276). Concomitant pathologies had a negative cumulative effect on the test results.