A Prospective Cohort Study (OUTSTRIP-COVID) on Functional and Spirometry Outcomes in COVID-19 ICU Survivors at 3 Months

• Published in: International journal of general medicine 2023-01, Vol.16, p.2633-2642
• Main Authors: Thomas, Merlin, Raza, Tasleem, Hameed, Mansoor, Sharma, Rohit, Rajagopal, Rajalekshmi Maheswari, Hussain O Al Adab, Aisha, Ahmad, Mushtaq, George, Saibu, Hussein, Mousa, Akram, Jaweria, Mohamed Ibrahim, Mohamed Izham, Ait Hssain, Ali, Yousaf, Muhammad, Yahya Khatib, Mohamad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acute respiratory distress syndrome; Analysis; covid-19; Epidemics; exercise capacity; health related quality of life; Hospital patients; lung function; Original Research; Qatar; Spirometry; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 1178-7074; 1178-7074
• DOI: 10.2147/IJGM.S404834

COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant number of critical care admissions secondary to severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. We evaluated the short-, medium- and long-term outcomes of lung function and quality of life in this prospective cohort study and reported the outcomes at 7 weeks and 3 months from discharge from intensive care unit. A prospective cohort study of ICU survivors with COVID-19 was conducted from August 2020 to May 2021 to evaluate baseline demographic and clinical variables as well as determine lung function, exercise capacity, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) using spirometry and 6-minute walk test (6MWT) conducted in accordance with American Thoracic Society standards, and SF-36 (Rand), respectively. SF-36 is a generic 36 question standardized health survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics (alpha = 0.05) were used to analyse the data. At baseline, 100 participants were enrolled in the study of whom 76 followed up at 3 months. Majority of the patients were male (83%), Asians (84%) and less than 60 years of age (91%). HRQOL showed significant improvement in all domains of SF-36, except in emotional wellbeing. Spirometry variables also showed significant improvement in all variables over time with greatest improvement in percentage predicted Forced expiratory volume 1 (79% vs 88% < 0.001). 6MWT showed significant improvement in variables of walk distance, dyspnea, and fatigue with greatest improvement in change in oxygen saturation (3% vs 1.44% < 0.001). Intubation status did not impact the changes in SF-36, spirometry or 6MWT variables. Our findings suggest that ICU survivors of COVID-19 have significant improvement in their lung function, exercise capacity and HRQOL within 3 months of ICU discharge regardless of intubation status.