AI Article Synopsis
- Long-COVID patients showed reduced physical fitness, and a study aimed to assess how pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) impacts their fitness, quality of life (QoL), and CT scan results.
- A 3-month PR program involved endurance and resistance training, with assessments indicating significant improvements in patient-reported outcomes and test results like the six-minute walk test (6MWT) and peak exercise load.
- The study found that PR helped restore lung capacity and airway volume while improving QoL, suggesting that rehabilitation is beneficial for long-COVID patients.
Article Abstract
Long-COVID patients present with a decline in physical fitness. The aim of this study is to reveal the impact of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) on physical fitness, quality of life (QoL), and parameters of quantified thorax CT. Long-COVID patients enrolled in a 3-month PR program were retrospectively studied. PR included endurance and resistance training three times a week. Assessments pre- and post-rehabilitation included quantified chest CT, pulmonary function tests (PFT), six-minute walk test (6MWT), cardiopulmonary exercise test, and questionnaires: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, post-COVID-19 Functional Status scale, Borg score, and EuroQol. Seventeen subjects (5M/12F), mean age 42 ± 13 years, were included. PR improved all questionnaires' results significantly. Only significant difference in PFT parameters was correlation between baseline total lung capacity (TLC) and difference in TLC pre- and post-rehabilitation (p = 0.002). 6MWT increased from 329 to 365 m (p < 0.001), VO2max changed from 21 to 24 mL/kg/min (p = 0.007), peak load increased from 116 to 141 Watt (p < 0.001). Blood volume in small pulmonary vessels of 1.25 to 5 mm in cross-sectional area (BV5%) was higher than observed in patients with acute COVID-19 infection. After rehabilitation, BV5% decreased from 65% to 62% (p = 0.020). These changes correlated directly with changes in TLC (p = 0.039). Quantified CT airway volume increased after rehabilitation (p = 0.013). After rehabilitation, TLC tended to normalize due to (re)opening of small airways, with decline in air trapping and recruitment of alveoli. Furthermore, this study revealed that pulmonary rehabilitation can improve QoL and physical fitness in long-COVID patients.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10830387 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.14814/phy2.15931 | DOI Listing |
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