Pulmonary fibrosis 4 months after COVID-19 is associated with severity of illness and blood leucocyte telomere length

Abstract

The risk factors for development of fibrotic-like radiographic abnormalities after severe COVID-19 are incompletely described and the extent to which CT findings correlate with symptoms and physical function after hospitalisation remains unclear. At 4 months after hospitalisation, fibrotic-like patterns were more common in those who underwent mechanical ventilation (72%) than in those who did not (20%). We demonstrate that severity of initial illness, duration of mechanical ventilation, lactate dehydrogenase on admission and leucocyte telomere length are independent risk factors for fibrotic-like radiographic abnormalities. These fibrotic-like changes correlate with lung function, cough and measures of frailty, but not with dyspnoea.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Apr 29, 2021
Source ID
10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217031

Entities

People

  • Belinda M D'souza
  • Christine Kim Garcia
  • Claire McGroder
  • David Zhang
  • Eric A. Hoffman
  • Mary M Salvatore
  • Matthew R Baldwin
  • Mohammad A Choudhury
  • Ying Wei

Organizations

  • National Institutes of Health
  • United States Department of Defense

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Immunology and Pathology
  • Infectious Disease/Epidemiology
  • Medical Imaging.