{"id":39446,"date":"2020-12-09T07:17:13","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T07:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/?p=39446"},"modified":"2020-12-10T19:44:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T19:44:49","slug":"severe-complications-commonly-reported-three-months-after-recovery-from-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/39446","title":{"rendered":"Serious complications commonly reported three months after recovery from COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span>Simon Collins, HIV i-Base<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although many studies on COVID-19 initially focused on mortality rates 28 days after diagnosis there are limited data on longer-term outcomes in people who survive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Dutch study, by Bram van den Borst from Nijmegen Medical Centre and colleagues, report outcomes from COVID-19 three months after recovery in 124 participants. COVID-19 stage was categorised using WHO criteria as mild (n=27), moderate (n=51), severe (n=26) and critical (n=20) infection.<\/p>\n

The chance for an intensive medical examination was offered consecutively to all people either hospitalised with COVID-19 at Radboud Medical Centre between 23 April and 15 July 2020\u00a0or not-admitted but who had symptoms for >6 weeks who were then referred by their GP.<\/p>\n

The standardised detailed assessment included lung function, chest CT\/X-ray, 6-minute walking test, body composition and questionnaires on mental cognitive health status and quality of life (QoL).<\/p>\n

Baseline characteristics included mean age 59 years (+\/\u2013 14), 60% were male and 40% had comorbidities (median 1; IQR 0 to 2).<\/p>\n

After three months, most participants recovered lung function, with 99% having\u00a0reduced ground-glass opacification and 93% of people with mild COVID-19 had normal chest x-ray.<\/p>\n

However, lung difusion capacity was less than normal for 43% and residual abnormalities were still present in more than 90% of discharged patients – and this correlated with diffusion capacity. Participants with critical COVID-19 (that involved longer hospital stays and mechanical oxygen) were more likely to still show signs of pulmonary fibrosis (50%).<\/p>\n

Approximately one third of participants had abnormal mental status or cognitive function although this was not correlated with severity of COVID-19, suggesting this was not directly modulated by inflammation. Fatigue was also still common and less than 40% reported general and health-related QoL as normal.<\/p>\n

The study concluded that a substantial percentage of participants reported severe problems in several aspects of health and that long follow-up studies were needed to predict complications related to long-term recovery.<\/p>\n

comment<\/h3>\n

These results from a relatively small study support the increasing concern with longer term complications from COVID-19 and highlight the importance of further research.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is even with a potential bias from self-selection of participants where continued symptoms might have influenced the decision to take part.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reference<\/p>\n

van den Borst B et al. Comprehensive health assessment three months after recovery from acute COVID-19.\u00a0Clinical Infectious Diseases ciaa1750. DOI: 10.1093\/cid\/ciaa1750. (21 November 2020).
\nhttps:\/\/academic.oup.com\/cid\/advance-article\/doi\/10.1093\/cid\/ciaa1750\/5998118<\/a><\/p>\n

This article was first posted on 30 November 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simon Collins, HIV i-Base Although many studies on COVID-19 initially focused on mortality rates 28 days after diagnosis there are limited data on longer-term outcomes in people who survive. A Dutch study, by Bram van den Borst from Nijmegen Medical …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[284,290,278],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-covid-19-complications","category-covid-19-pathogenesis","category-covid-19"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}