6‐Month Respiratory Outcomes and Exercise Capacity of COVID‐19 Acute Respiratory Failure Patients Treated With CPAP

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background COVID‐19 long‐term sequelae are ill‐defined since only few studies have explored the long‐term consequences of this disease so far. Objective to evaluate the 6‐month respiratory outcomes and exercise capacity of COVID‐19 acute respiratory failure (ARF) patients treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) during the first wave of the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic. Design retrospective observational study. Patients COVID‐19 patients with ARF. Interventions CPAP during hospitalization and 6‐month follow‐up. Main Measures frailty assessment through frailty index (FI), pO2/FiO2 during hospitalization and at follow‐up, respiratory parameters, 6‐min walking test (6MWT) and the modified British Medical Research Council (mMRC) and Borg scale at follow‐up. Key Results more than half of the patients had no dyspnoea according to the mMRC scale. Lower in‐hospital pO2/FiO2 correlated with higher BORG scale levels after 6MWT (ρ 0.27; p 0.04) at follow up visit. FI was positively correlated with length of hospitalization (ρ 0.3; p 0.03) and negatively with the 6MWT walked distance (ρ ‐0.36; p 0.004). Conclusions robust and frail patients with COVID‐19 ARF treated with NIV outside the intensive care unit setting had good respiratory parameters and exercise capacity at 6‐month follow‐up, although more severe patients had slightly poorer respiratory performance compared to patients with higher PaO2/FiO2 and lower FI. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.