Covid, pneumonia signs after 6 months: the study

Covid pneumonia leaves its marks 6 months later in “a considerable percentage” of patients. This is one of the data that emerged on the coronavirus theme from a post-discharge monitoring project led by the complex Pneumology Unit of the San Gerardo hospital in Monza, in collaboration with the University of Milan-Bicocca. The research involved 7 Lombard centers (in addition to San Gerardo, the Spedali Civili of Brescia, the ‘G. Salvini’ hospital of Garbagnate Milanese, the hospitals of Cremona, Crema and Vimercate, and the San Giuseppe hospital of Milan), with respiratory functional tests and chest radiographs on 312 patients. The 6-month visits ended in November and the data are being published in ‘Respiration’, while the 12-month follow-up is being completed these days, informs Asst of Monza in a note. The study, reports the local socio-health company, showed that “6 months after Sars-CoV-2 pneumonia, alterations in respiratory functional tests and chest radiography are present in a considerable percentage of the population under study” . The two tests that have proved most sensitive in identifying pulmonary sequelae are “the alveolar-capillary diffusion of carbon monoxide (Dlco), a measurable parameter in the respiratory functional tests, and chest X-ray”, which ” showed alterations respectively in 46% and 25% of the patients evaluated. It is important to point out, however – a note specifies – that the alterations found were in the majority of cases of a mild degree “. Regarding respiratory problems such as shortness of breath, “the majority of patients studied (69%) 6 months after Sars-CoV-2 pneumonia no longer presented this symptom. In patients who still declared it, it almost manifested itself. exclusively during intense efforts “. Also with regard to the walking test, “only a minority of the study participants showed a reduction in the distance traveled”. “A further interesting fact” remarked by the San Gerardo experts concerns “heparin prophylaxis administered during hospitalization, in order to prevent thrombosis associated with Covid-19. In our patients – report the authors of the study – this prophylaxis seems to have acted from a protective factor on the detection of alterations in respiratory functional tests even after 6 months, opening new scenarios on the impact of therapy for Covid-19 also in preventing medium-long term consequences “. “Ours – comments the general director of Asst Monza, Mario Alparone – is the first Italian multicentre study to address the problem of pulmonary sequelae 6 months after Sars-CoV-2 pneumonia, and will allow us to better evaluate the effects on long term on patients who have contracted this disease, the consequences of which, to date, are not yet fully known “.