‘Long-COVID’: a cross-sectional study of persisting symptoms, biomarker and imaging abnormalities following hospitalisation for COVID-19 (10 November 2020)

Summary

Large numbers of people are being discharged from hospital following COVID-19 without assessment of recovery.

Mandal et al. followed 384 patients who had tested positive and had been treated at Barnet Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital or UCLH. Collectively the average length of stay in hospital was 6.5 days.

The team found that 54 days after discharge, 69% of patients were still experiencing fatigue, and 53% were suffering from persistent breathlessness. They also found that 34% still had a cough and 15% reported depression. In addition 38% of chest radiographs (X-rays) remained abnormal and 9% were getting worse.

The study has identified persisting symptoms and radiological abnormalities in a significant proportion of subjects. These data may assist with the identification of people outside expected recovery trajectories who could benefit from additional rehabilitation and/or further investigation to detect post-COVID complications.