• Patrizia Pasculli, Maria Antonella Zingaropoli, Federica Dominelli, Angelo Giuseppe Solimini, Giorgio Maria Masci, Lucia Ilaria Birtolo, Lara Pasquariello, Filippo Paribeni, Franco Iafrate, Valeria Panebianco, Gioacchino Galardo, Massimo Mancone, Carlo Catalano, Francesco Pugliese, Paolo Palange, Claudio Maria Mastroianni, and Maria Rosa Ciardi.
• Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Rome, Italy. Electronic address: patrizia.pasculli@uniroma1.it.
• Am. J. Med. 2024 Sep 18.

BackgroundThe long-term symptomatology of COVID-19 has yet to be comprehensively described. The aim of the study was to describe persistent COVID-19 symptoms in a cohort of hospitalized and home-isolated patients.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted on long COVID patients. Long COVID symptoms were identified, and patients were divided into hospitalized (in-patients) and home-isolated (out-patients), as well as according to the number of symptoms. Patients were examined by a multidisciplinary medical team. Blood tests, high resolution chest computed tomography (CT), and physical and infectious examinations were performed. Finally, in-patients were evaluated at 2 time-points: on hospital admission (T0) and 3 months after discharge (Tpost).ResultsThere were 364 COVID-19 patients enrolled; 82% of patients reported one or more symptoms. The most reported symptom was fatigue. Chest CT showed alteration in 76% of patients, and pulmonary function alterations were observed in 44.7% of patients. A higher risk of presenting at least one symptom was seen in patients treated with corticosteroid, and a higher risk of presenting chest CT residual lesion was observed in hospitalized patients and in patients that received hydroxychloroquine treatment. Moreover, a higher risk of altered pulmonary function was observed in older patients.ConclusionLong-term sequelae are present in a remarkable number of long COVID patients and pose a new challenge to the health care system to identify long-lasting effects and improve patients' well-being. Multidisciplinary teams are crucial to develop preventive measures, and clinical management strategies.Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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