1887
Volume 2025, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 0253-8253
  • EISSN: 2227-0426

Abstract

We aimed to determine the radiological changes on computed tomography (CT) scans of the chest and pulmonary function abnormalities at a 1-year follow-up in intensive care unit (ICU) survivors with severe COVID-19.

A 2-year prospective cohort study with an enrollment of 204 patients within 3 months after their discharge from the ICU at Hamad General Hospital, the tertiary care center in Qatar.

The mean age of our cohort was 48.7 ± 8.6 years. CT chest was performed on a total of 135 patients at a 1-year follow-up, out of which 43 patients had a CT chest during hospital admission with COVID-19. Abnormal CT chest findings were seen in 118 (87.4%) patients at 1 year. The mean CT severity score significantly improved at 1 year (8.1 ± 6.8 vs. 19.4 ± 3.6, < 0.001). Those with an abnormal CT chest in 1 year had a significantly lower but normal predicted forced vital capacity (91.9% ± 15.4 vs. 81.1% ± 13.7, = 0.01), predicted total lung capacity (82.5% ± 13.9 vs. 94.3% ± 12.7, = 0.02) and oxygen saturation after 6-minute walk test (6MWT) (97.5 ± 1.2 vs. 98.3 ± 0.651, = 0.033). 6MWT distance was significantly shorter than the predicted distance in those with an abnormal CT (63 (62.4%) vs. 7 (77.8%), = 0.020).

Patients recovering from severe COVID-19 have significant improvement but persistent radiological changes at a 1-year follow-up that correlate with several physiological parameters, but these findings are limited by the absence of pre-COVID-19 baseline imaging.

© 2025 Thomas, Hussein, Al Rashid, Mohamed, Kambal, Kumar, et al., licensee HBKU Press.
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2025-06-30
2025-12-15

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Functional and radiological changes in ICU survivors with COVID-19 at 1-year follow-up from the OUTSTRIP COVID-19 study
Qatar Medical Journal 2025, 40 (2025); https://doi.org/10.5339/qmj.2025.40
/content/journals/10.5339/qmj.2025.40
/content/journals/10.5339/qmj.2025.40
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): COVID-19, CT chest, exercise capacity, ICU survivors, lung function and radiology

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