Clinical and Radiological Outcomes of Recovered COVID-19 Patients- An Observational Study during the Early Phase of Pandemic

Introduction: The pandemic caused by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused huge economic and health crisis. It is reported to have pulmonary sequelae which can overburden the healthcare systems. Survivors needing medical attention in the form of pulmonary rehabilitation should be priori...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of clinical and diagnostic research Vol. 15; no. 7; pp. 33 - 37
Main Authors:	Padalkar, Disha Atul, Bargaje, Medha, Doke, Purwa Prakash, Gilani, Sarosh, Nadkarni, Varad, Pala, Sanbanki
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	JCDR Research and Publications Private Limited 01-07-2021
Subjects:	coronavirus disease 2019 peak expiratory flow rate pulmonary fibrosis six-minute walk test
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Summary:	Introduction: The pandemic caused by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused huge economic and health crisis. It is reported to have pulmonary sequelae which can overburden the healthcare systems. Survivors needing medical attention in the form of pulmonary rehabilitation should be prioritised. Aim: To study the impact of COVID-19 infection in terms of the pulmonary and extrapulmonary sequelae. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was carried out at a tertiary hospital in India. Recovered COVID-19 patients who were admitted from April to July 2020 were enrolled. Participants with radiological evidence of pneumonia during hospitalisation were assessed two months post-discharge. They were evaluated for persistent symptomatology, chest radiography, Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT). The relationship between the outcome parameters with the baseline epidemiology, laboratory and radiology were evaluated by using student t-test, Mann- Whitney U test and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results: Thirty participants were recruited. Their mean age was 47.93 years. Males were more than females. Persistent symptoms were reported by 17 (56.66%) and 4 (13.33%) developed pulmonary fibrosis on Chest X-Ray (CXR). Prolonged hospitalisation (mean >20 days) strongly correlated to the fibrosis (p=0.022). A fall in the finger oxygen saturation after the 6MWT was significant (p≤0.001). Higher serum levels of lactate dehydrogenase and D-dimer were associated with a more severe disease (p=0.02 and p≤0.001, respectively). Conclusion: Convalescent phase of COVID-19 is characterised by persistent symptomatology in half of the recovered patients. Simple and inexpensive CXRs and the 6MWT can be used as the primary investigation to identify post COVID-19 patients requiring pulmonary rehabilitation in resource limited settings.
ISSN:	2249-782X 0973-709X
DOI:	10.7860/JCDR/2021/48871.15129