Biomed Pap Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub. 2023, 167(2):185-191 | DOI: 10.5507/bp.2022.039

Clinical presentation and pulmonary function tests in post-acute COVID-19 patients

Samuel Genzor¹, Petr Jakubec¹, Milan Sova^{1, 2}, Jan Mizera¹, Pavol Joppa³, Radim Burget⁴, Pavol Pobeha³

¹ Department of Respiratory Diseases and Tuberculosis, University Hospital Olomouc and Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Palacky University Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic

² Department of Respiratory Diseases and Tuberculosis, University Hospital Brno and Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic

³ Department of Respiratory Diseases and Tuberculosis, University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Pavol Jozef Safarik University, Kosice, Slovak Republic

⁴ Department of Telecommunications, University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

Aims: The study analysed post-acute COVID-19 symptoms and the pulmonary function test (PFT) results in patients surviving the native strain of the virus.

Methods: The study was prospective; the inclusion criteria were positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 and age 18-100. Exclusion criteria were active respiratory infection, known or suspicious pre-existing pulmonary disease, cardiac failure, recent or acute pulmonary embolism, anaemia, and neuromuscular diseases. The recruitment period was 1^st March 2020 - 25^th December 2020. The initial examination was performed 4-12 weeks after the disease onset. All subjects underwent physical examination, anamnesis, chest x-ray and PFT.

Results: The study involved 785 subjects (345 male) mean age 53.8 (SD 14.6). The disease severity groups were: mild (G1), moderate (G2) and severe/critical (G3). Anosmia was present in the acute disease phase in 45.2% of G1 patients, but only in 4.5% of G3 patients. Dyspnoea occurred frequently in more severe groups (40%, 51.8% and 63.7% for G1, G2 and G3 respectively), while cough and fatigue showed no relationship to disease severity. Females were more likely to experience persistent symptoms. PFT results were significantly decreased in more severe groups compared to the mild COVID-19 patients, diffusing capacity was 86.3%, 79% and 68% of predicted values in G1, G2 and G3 respectively.

Conclusion: Anosmia during the acute phase was associated with mild disease, persisting dyspnoea was more frequent after more severe COVID-19. Females tended to have persisting symptoms in post-acute phase more frequently. PFT results showed decrease with disease severity.

Keywords: COVID-19, post-acute phase, clinical presentation, pulmonary function tests

Received: June 4, 2022; Revised: August 16, 2022; Accepted: August 24, 2022; Prepublished online: September 6, 2022; Published: June 12, 2023  Show citation