2 years after Covid, patients’ chest scans show lung problems: study
The study discovered that patients’ residual lung abnormalities after leaving the hospital included fibrosis (scarring), thickness, honeycombing, cystic alterations, bronchial dilatation, and more.
Two years following COVID-19, patients’ chest CT scans showed chronic lung problems, according to a recent study.
More than 600 million people around the world had recovered from COVID-19, but the study raised worries that some organs, particularly the lungs, could sustain long-term damage following infection.
In the study, Qing Ye and Heshui Shi from Wuhan, China’s Tongji Medical College and their colleagues sought to evaluate any persistent lung abnormalities in individuals who had COVID-19 pneumonia up to two years prior.
It claimed that this was the first study to examine the effects of COVID-19 on the lungs over a two-year period. It appears in the magazine Radiology.
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The study says they also examined the relationship between persistent lung abnormalities and modifications in lung function.
It stated that 144 patients, 79 men and 65 women, with a median age of 60, who were discharged from the hospital after contracting SARS-CoV-2 between January 15 and March 10, 2020, were included in this prospective study.
At six months, 12 months, and two years following the onset of symptoms, pulmonary function tests and three serial chest CT images were acquired, according to the study.
The study discovered that patients’ residual lung abnormalities after leaving the hospital included fibrosis (scarring), thickness, honeycombing, cystic alterations, bronchial dilatation, and more.
The study also discovered that the prevalence of lung anomalies gradually decreased over the course of two years. At six months, lung abnormalities were present in 54% of patients.
According to the study, 39%, or 56 patients, had abnormal lung tissue on two-year follow-up CT scans, including 23%, or 33 patients, who had fibrotic lung abnormalities and 16%, or 23 patients, who had non-fibrotic lung abnormalities.
The proportion of fibrotic interstitial lung anomalies, a crucial precursor to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, in particular, remained stable during the course of follow-up, according to the investigators.
As a result, the fibrotic anomalies found in this study “may reflect a persistent, irreversible pulmonary disease, such as lung fibrosis, after COVID-19,” according to the scientists.
According to the study, none of the 88 remaining cases—or 61% of the participants—exhibited any abnormalities.
According to the study, patients who had impaired lung function on a CT scan were more likely to develop respiratory symptoms.
According to the study, the percentage of those who had respiratory symptoms dropped from 30% after six months to 22% at two years.
Exertional dyspnea or shortness of breath was the most prevalent respiratory symptom at the two-year follow-up and was seen in 14% of the study group, while mild and moderate pulmonary diffusion was seen in 29% of patients, or 38 out of 129, according to the study.
The ability of the air sacs in the lungs to effectively transport oxygen to and remove carbon dioxide from the blood in the tiny blood arteries that surround them is known as pulmonary diffusion.
According to the study, pulmonary diffusion was considered abnormal when the lung’s carbon monoxide diffusing capacity was less than 75% of the expected value.
The researchers hypothesised that the patient’s continued lung injury may be related to lingering residual symptoms and aberrant lung function.
The authors stated that “Long-term and functional effects of chest CT findings post-COVID-19 are mainly unknown.”
According to the authors’ prospective analysis, 39% of individuals showed interstitial lung abnormalities that persisted at two years and were linked to respiratory symptoms and a decline in diffusion function.
The authors recommended that patients be monitored to identify and treat pulmonary alterations and functional impairment if they still had respiratory symptoms or persistent lung abnormalities after receiving COVID-19.