Twelve-month clinical, functional and radiological outcomes in patients hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia.

Abstract

To assess long-term clinical, radiological and functional follow-up of patients hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia of different grade of severity. Two-hundred-thirty-three patients (Group 1, patients needed invasive mechanical ventilation -IMV-, n=69; Group 2, patients needed NIMV, n=78; Group 3, patients needed < 12 l/min of O2 supply, n=96) with a post-discharge follow-up>12 months were studied. Follow-up visits, chest CT scan and pulmonary function tests (DLCO, 6-minutes walking tests -6MWT-, spirometry) were done at 3, 6 and 12 months after discharge. Male sex was more frequent in Group 1 (n=50, 72.5%) compared to Group 2 (n=49, 62.5%) and Group 3 (n=44, 51.2%), p=0.024. Group 2 patients had more co-morbidities and higher BMI compared to others. At month 12, the main reported symptoms were fatigue (mainly in Group 3) and dyspnea; most symptoms resolved during follow-up, except brain fog, memory loss and anosmia/dysgeusia that, when present at month 3, usually persisted at month 12. DLCO and 6MWT normalized at month 12 in almost all patients. Only 9 patients (13%) in Group 1 had a normal chest CT at month 12, whilst 20 (29%) had >3 abnormalities, compared to 14 (17.9%) in Group 2 and 11 (11.4%) in Group 3, respectively (p=0.04). Different clinical symptoms persist up to 12 months in patients hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. Despite the persistence of abnormalities at chest CT scan after 12 months, an impairment of pulmonary function persists only in a minority of subjects. A longer follow-up is needed to assess the evolution of radiological abnormalities in COVID-19 population. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.