Dolphin
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
JCM-V1-1020 % Medium and Long-term Consequences of COVID-19
Medium and Long-term Consequences of COVID-19
jcmimagescasereports.org
Review Article - Volume 1 Issue 1
Medium and Long-term Consequences of COVID-19
Carlos Remolina
1Chief of Pulmonary Medicine at Trinitas Regional Medical Center/Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.2Medical Intern Pavia Yauco Hospital, Puerto Rico.
Received Date : Nov 06, 2021
Accepted Date : Dec 07, 2021
Published Date: Dec 13, 2021
Copyright:© Carlos Remolina 2021.
*Corresponding Author : Carlos Remolina, Chief of Pulmonary Medicine at Trinitas Regional Medical Center/Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
Email: carlos_remolina@yahoo.com
DOI: Doi.org/10.55920/2771-019X/1020
Abstract
Objective: To investigate the medium and long-term consequences of the COVID-19 disease and its impact on the functional capacity of patients. A clinical evaluation of the incidence of Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) among COVID-19 survivors.Methods: Retrospective study of 30 patients confirmed with COVID-19 who were evaluated at our pulmonary office in Linden, NJ, 6 months after the onset of symptoms. The 30 patient consisted of 18 women and 12 men with a mean (SD) age of 55 (10.7) years. Hospital admitted 13 (43%) patients, length of hospital stay 16 (5.85) days, 3 or more post-COVID symptoms in all patients. The evaluation included the following: lung volumes (total lung capacity (TLC), vital capacity (VC), functional residual capacity (FRC), residual volume (RV)), spirometry (forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), and the ratio of these values FEV1/FVC), diffusion capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide (DLCO), 6-minute walk test (6MWT), chest radiographs, CT of chest, musculoskeletal evaluation (hand grip strength capacity) and health related quality of life (HRQoL) by Short Form-36 Questionnaire (SF-36).
Results: The most relevant post-COVID symptoms were sleep disturbance 97%, shortness of breath 90%, chest pain 63%, post-nasal drip 60%, cough 21% and back pain 20%. The pulmonary function test performed on 16 survivors revealed 10 (62.5%), 12 (75%), 8 (50%) and 11 patients (69%) were < 80% of predicted values of the FVC, FEV1, TLC, and DLCO respectively. The CT of the chest showed that the ground-glass opacity (GGO) and the consolidations were persistent in 7 and 3 subjects, respectively. The 6MWT distance for 15 women was 270 (154.51) m, and for 10 men was 266 (144.67) m. The HGSC for 10 women was 11 (3.31) kilogram-force (kgf) for the right hand and 10 (4.14) kgf for the left hand. The HGSC for 6 men was 28 (16.99) kgf for the right hand and 26 (16.12) kgf for the left hand. There were 15 patients assessed through the SF-36 survey, showing that the most affected domains were the general health (GH), role physical (RP), mental health (MH), and energy/fatigue (EF). Twenty-seven patients (80%) of our population showed more than 6 multisite pain (MSP) locations, more usually at the chest, upper back, lower back and limbs associated with fatigue and sleep disturbance for at least 3 months.
Conclusion: This study has shown a significant reduction in the functional capacity and HRQoL of patients after COVID-19 infection. These chronic post-COVID symptoms were similar to those found in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Fibromyalgia. We recommended our patient to initiate an early rehabilitation program called COVID-19 rehabilitation exercise modalities (CREM), to mitigate the Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS)
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; fibromyalgia; functional capacity; pulmonary rehabilitation; PACS.