Diaz-Fuentes Gilda, Roa-Gomez Gabriella, Reyes Olga, Singhal Ravish, Venkatram Sindhaghatta
Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care, BronxCare Health System, Bronx, NY 10457, USA.
J Clin Med. 2021 Jul 29;10(15):3368. doi: 10.3390/jcm10153368.
The morbidity and long term pulmonary consequences of COVID-19 infection continue to unfold as we learn and follow survivors of this disease. We report radiological evolution and pulmonary function findings in those patients.
This was a retrospective cohort study of adult patients referred to the post-acute COVID-19 pulmonary clinic after a diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia. The study period was after the initial peak of the pandemic in New York City, from June to December 2020.
111 patients were included. The average interval time between COVID-19 pneumonia and initial clinic evaluation was 12 weeks. 48.2% of patients had moderate and 22.3% had severe infection. Dyspnea and cough was the most common respiratory symptoms post infection. Radiographic abnormalities improved in majority of patients with ground glass opacities been the common residual abnormal finding. Restrictive airway disease and decreased diffusion capacity were the most common findings in pulmonary function test.
Our study suggests the needs for close and serial monitoring of functional and radiological abnormalities during the post COVID-19 period. Considering that many of the clinical-radiological and functional abnormalities are reversible, we suggest a "wait and watch"approach to avoid unnecessary invasive work up.
随着我们对新冠病毒疾病幸存者的了解和跟踪，新冠病毒感染的发病率及其长期肺部影响仍在不断显现。我们报告了这些患者的影像学演变及肺功能检查结果。
这是一项针对确诊新冠病毒肺炎后转诊至新冠病毒感染后肺部门诊的成年患者的回顾性队列研究。研究时间段为纽约市疫情首次高峰过后，即2020年6月至12月。
共纳入111例患者。新冠病毒肺炎至首次门诊评估的平均间隔时间为12周。48.2%的患者为中度感染，22.3%为重度感染。感染后最常见的呼吸道症状是呼吸困难和咳嗽。大多数患者的影像学异常有所改善，磨玻璃影是常见的残留异常表现。限制性气道疾病和弥散能力下降是肺功能检查中最常见的结果。
我们的研究表明，在新冠病毒感染后阶段，需要密切并持续监测功能和影像学异常情况。鉴于许多临床影像学和功能异常是可逆的，我们建议采用“观察等待”的方法，以避免不必要的侵入性检查。
