Dyspnoea in patients presenting post-COVID-19 respiratory clinic not fully explained by lung function impairment and chest radiography abnormalities.

Abstract

<b>Introduction:</b> Patients who have recovered from acute COVID-19 continue to have persistent respiratory symptoms and we established Post-COVID respiratory clinic (PCRC) to evaluate them. <b>Methods:</b> This is a retrospective study of patients who had presented to the PCRC. Full pulmonary function test and chest radiography were done and the images were scored for severity using radiographic assessment of lung edema(RALE) &amp; Yasin score. <b>Results:</b> One hundred patients presented after a mean duration of 9 weeks after the acute illness. The most common symptom was dyspnoea in 55% of the patients.&nbsp;There was good correlation of Chest Xray scores with the lung function. Comparison of clinical, radiologic and lung function parameters showed that more patients presenting in PCR clinic with dyspnoea had&nbsp;dyspnoea during acute COVID-19 compared to those without dyspnoea. There was no&nbsp;correlation of dyspnoea with lung function parameters and Chest Xray scores. <b>Conclusion:</b> Dyspnoea is the commonest symptom in post-COVID-19 patients and it has no correlation to lung function parameters and Chest Xray abnormalities.