Pulmonary Fibrosis in post COVID-19 follow up cases

Abstract

An outbreak of novel coronavirus CoV-19(SARS-CoV-2) was responsible for coronavirus disease-19(COVID-19) and was first reported in Hubei province, Wuhan, China, on November 17, 2019. It had rapidly spread globally with approximately 66.4 crore cases, 64.40 crore recoveries and 67.1 lakh deaths (200,000 death within first four month) till now. In India there were 4.46 crore cases of which 4.41 crore recovered and there were 5.30 lakh deaths till now (JHU CSSE COVID-19 Data). Assessment of pulmonary fibrosis in post COVID-19 follow up cases. The prospective observational study was carried out at R.D. Gardi Medical College, Ujjain in the Department of Respiratory Medicine. All post COVID-19 cases attending post covid care speciality clinic was included in the study with minimum 119 patients. In our study of 119 post covid follow up cases, post covid pulmonary fibrosis was seen in 67(56.3%) patients (fibrotic group) of which only in 3 patients had residual lung fibrosis while other improved. The patients who had lung fibrosis were fewer than expected (<5%). These sequelae were mostly occurring in the elderly patients with comorbidities, longer hospital stay, severity of covid infection and smoking are the other risk factors for its development. Post Covid patients had various symptoms like weakness, cough, breathlessness etc which required symptomatic management.