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SESSION TITLE: Post-COVID-19 Outcomes SESSION TYPE: Rapid Fire Original Inv PRESENTED ON: 10/19/2022 11:15 am - 12:15 pm PURPOSE: The World Health Organization defines post-acute sequelae of SARS-COV-2 infection (Long-COVID) as persistent symptoms after COVID-19 for more than two months. Although many studies show associations of comorbidities with prolonged COVID-19 symptoms, to our knowledge, there is no study with a comparison group for Long-COVID. We performed a retrospective study looking at risk factors for the development of Long-COVID. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 2,234 records of patients with a history of COVID-19 diagnosed by RT-PCR who followed up as outpatients at multiple pulmonary clinics in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, from March 2020 to December 2021. Data included the patient's age, sex, comorbidities, oxygen device including FiO2 level, and duration of symptoms. We evaluated patient characteristics, duration of symptoms, comorbidities, and disease severity. Analyses comprised the Mann-Whitney U test, χ2 test, or Fisher's exact test Using SPSS v. 26 at an alpha of 0.05. RESULTS: Of the 2,234 patients evaluated, 471 patients were included. The mean age was 56 ± 15 years (± SD), and 62.6% were female. 212 (45%) required hospital admission, and 23 (4.9%) required mechanical ventilation. Of those patients, 351 had symptoms for more than two months (Long-COVID) and 121 for two months or less (no Long-COVID). Both groups had similar characteristics. Hospitalization was more common in the Long-COVID group (51.6% vs. 21.8%, p<0.001). Increased FiO2 requirement was associated with prolonged symptoms (p<0.001), and patients requiring high-flow, non-invasive and invasive ventilation were more likely to develop Long-COVID (p=0.002). The mean duration of symptoms in patients with long-COVID was 7.9 ± 3.9 months versus 0.5 ± 0.8 months in the comparison group (p<0.001). Obesity, asthma, COPD, heart failure, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, and immunosuppression were not found to be associated with Long-COVID. Regarding vaccination status, our analysis was limited since only 15 patients were vaccinated prior to developing COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: Current data on Long-COVID suggests that prolonged symptoms are associated with older age, comorbidities, duration of hospitalization, and ICU stay. Our results, however, suggest that infection severity is the most important factor related to prolonged COVID-19 symptoms rather than comorbidities and age. Our study did contain limitations due to its retrospective nature, subjective duration of symptoms rather than objective 6-minute walk test, and lastly, patients may have been affected by different SARS-COV2 variants and received different treatments. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Our results suggest that patients with severe COVID-19 are more predisposed to develop prolonged symptoms. Based on disease severity, this knowledge can inform providers and patients about prognosis and anticipated duration of symptoms post COVID-19 infection. DISCLOSURES: No relevant relationships by Brian Bustos No relevant relationships by Christopher Dipollina No relevant relationships by David O'Sullivan No relevant relationships by Eduardo Padrao No relevant relationships by Ravneet Randhawa No relevant relationships by Tejal Shah No relevant relationships by Pooja Shekar
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SESSION TITLE: Long COVID: It Can Take Your Breath Away SESSION TYPE: Original Investigations PRESENTED ON: 10/16/2022 10:30 am - 11:30 am PURPOSE: The World Health Organization has defined post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, or Long-COVID, as prolonged symptomatology after initial recovery lasting more than 2 months. Changes in respiratory function associated with this syndrome are not fully understood. Therefore, we performed a retrospective analysis of patients with pulmonary function tests (PFT) after COVID-19. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed records of 2,234 patients with a history of COVID-19 diagnosed by RT-PCR who followed up in pulmonary clinics in Hartford, Connecticut from March 2020 to December 2021. Data included the patients’ age, sex, comorbidities, PFT results, and the maximum oxygen requirement during acute illness: room air (RA), low-flow oxygen (LF), high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC), non-invasive ventilation (NIV) or mechanical ventilation (MV). We performed an adjusted logistic regression analysis to evaluate if the disease severity (defined by oxygen requirement) was associated with the presence of obstructive and restrictive disease during follow-up. SPSS 26.0 was used with an alpha level of 0.05. RESULTS: Of the 2,234 records, 471 (21.1%) had available PFTs. Only PFTs done between 2 and 12 months post COVID-19 were included. The mean age (± SD) of the sample was 56 ± 15 years;62.6% were female. Twenty three (4.9%) patients required MV, 17 (3.6%) NIV, 45 (9.5%) HFNC, 111 (23.6%) LF and 275 (58.4%) remained on RA. Obstructive disease was seen in 106 (22.5%), and bronchodilator response was seen in 34 (9.1%). Restrictive disease was seen in 129 (27.4%) and was associated with use of HFNC, NIV and MV (OR: 2.44, 3.67, 3.26;p<0.01). The presence of obstruction did not correlate with disease severity, however use of HFNC did correlate with the absence of obstruction (OR: 0.24;p=0.019). CONCLUSIONS: Our results show a significant association between disease severity and restrictive disease during follow up. This is compatible with smaller studies and is likely related to the fibrotic stage of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. There was an association of HFNC use with the absence of obstruction. Perhaps, patients with the pre-existing obstruction and severe COVID were less likely to tolerate HFNC and required higher support for recovery. Bronchodilator responsiveness was only present in a small portion of patients. Severe disease did not appear to predispose patients to the development of obstructive disease during the follow up period. Studies including pre- and post-COVID PFTs would further strengthen this assertion. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: We did find an association between severity of COVID-19 and restrictive disease during follow up. Conversely, disease severity did not correlate with obstruction. These data will help to define the typical course of progression in patients suffering from Long-COVID and may imply that management should mirror strategies employed in other pulmonary conditions that cause restriction. DISCLOSURES: No relevant relationships by Brian Bustos No relevant relationships by Christopher Dipollina No relevant relationships by David O'Sullivan No relevant relationships by Eduardo Padrao No relevant relationships by Ravneet Randhawa No relevant relationships by Tejal Shah No relevant relationships by Pooja Shekar
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Rationale: Over 350,000,000 people have had SARS-CoV-2 infection worldwide. COVID-19 poses many challenges in the management of patients causing a long-term and significant burden on the healthcare system. Understanding the long-term complications is a challenge that the healthcare community and patients will face. To our knowledge, this is one of the largest retrospective analyses with the aim to understand the functional lung sequelae of the disease. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 782 survivors who had COVID-19 diagnosed by RT-PCR and followed up at an outpatient pulmonary clinic in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, from March 2020 to June 2021. Data included patient's age, sex, comorbidities, pulmonary function tests (PFT), the maximal requirement of low-flow oxygen (LF), high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC), non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and mechanical ventilation (MV). We performed an adjusted logistic regression model to evaluate if severity of disease according to maximal oxygen support is associated with DLCO<80% in follow-up. SPSS IBM was used for the statistical modeling. Results: Of the 782 patients evaluated, 314 patients had PFT results available post COVID-19 for analysis. The mean age was 58.9±14.5 years, and of the total number of patients, 200 were female (63.7%). Other demographics are as follows: 156 (49.7%) were obese, 129 (41.2%) had asthma, 48 (15.3%) had COPD, 5 (1.6%) had Interstitial Lung Disease, 35 (11.1%) had anemia, 70 (22.3%) had diabetes mellitus, 164 (52.2%) had hypertension, 26 (8.3%) had heart failure. Only 14 (4.4%) required MV, 14 (4.5%) NIV, 29 (9.2%) HFNC, 94 (29.9%) LF and 153 (51.9%) remained on room air. Altered DLCO was seen in 107 patients (34.1%), 189 (60.1%) had normal DLCO, and 18 (5.7%) did not have DLCO, of which the latter were excluded from the analysis. Maximal oxygen support was associated with DLCO<80% on unadjusted analysis (p=0.003). However, it was not associated with DLCO<80% (p=0.2) when adjusted. Other variables associated with a higher risk of DLCO<80% were age (p<0.001) and COPD (p<0.028). Asthma was associated with lower risk of developing DLCO<80% (p<0.001). Conclusion: Patients with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection can develop DLCO<80%, which may contribute to long-term symptoms. Altered DLCO was not associated with maximal oxygen support in the adjusted logistic regression analysis. However, this may be due to the low number of cases requiring MV or NIV, resulting in selection bias, given there was a higher mortality rate in patients requiring positive pressure ventilation. Additionally, age and COPD were correlated with DLCO<80%.
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Importance: Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection is thought to be driven by a post-viral dysregulated immune response, where interleukin 6 (IL-6) might have a central role. In this setting, IL-6 inhibitors are prescribed as immunomodulation in cases refractory to standard therapy. Objective: To compare plasma IL-6 concentration between critically ill children with MIS-C and sepsis. Design: A retrospective cohort study from previously collected data. Setting: Individual patient data were gathered from three different international datasets. Participants: Critically ill children between 1 month-old and 18 years old, with an IL-6 level measured within 48 h of admission to intensive care. Septic patients were diagnosed according to Surviving Sepsis Campaign definition and MIS-C cases by CDC criteria. We excluded children with immunodeficiency or immunosuppressive therapy. Exposure: None. Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s): The primary outcome was IL-6 plasma concentration in MIS-C and sepsis group at admission to the intensive care unit. We described demographics, inflammatory biomarkers, and clinical outcomes for both groups. A subgroup analysis for shock in each group was done. Results: We analyzed 66 patients with MIS-C and 44 patients with sepsis. MIS-C cases were older [96 (48, 144) vs. 20 (5, 132) months old, p < 0.01], but no differences in sex (41 vs. 43% female, p = 0.8) compared to septic group. Mechanical ventilation use was 48.5 vs. 93% (p < 0.001), vasoactive drug use 79 vs. 66% (p = 0.13), and mortality 4.6 vs. 34.1% (p < 0.01) in MIS-C group compared to sepsis. IL-6 was 156 (36, 579) ng/dl in MIS-C and 1,432 (122, 6,886) ng/dl in sepsis (p < 0.01), while no significant differences were observed in procalcitonin (PCT) and c-reactive protein (CRP). 52/66 (78.8%) patients had shock in MIS-C group, and 29/44 (65.9%) had septic shock in sepsis group. Septic shock had a significantly higher plasma IL-6 concentration than the three other sub-groups. Differences in IL-6, CRP, and PCT were not statistically different between MIS-C with and without shock. Conclusions and Relevance: IL-6 plasma concentration was elevated in critically ill MIS-C patients but at levels much lower than those of sepsis. Furthermore, IL-6 levels don't discriminate between MIS-C cases with and without shock. These results lead us to question the role of IL-6 in the pathobiology of MIS-C, its diagnosis, clinical outcomes, and, more importantly, the off-label use of IL-6 inhibitors for these cases.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/diagnosis , COVID-19/therapy , Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome/diagnosis , Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome/therapy , Adolescent , COVID-19/etiology , COVID-19 Testing , Child , Child, Preschool , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Risk Factors , Severity of Illness Index , Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome/etiologyABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (PIMS-TS) is infrequent, but children might present as a life-threatening disease. In a systematic quantitative review, we analyzed 11 studies of PIMS-TS, including 468 children reported before July 1, 2020. We found a myriad of clinical features, but we were able to describe common characteristics: previously healthy school-aged children, persistent fever and gastrointestinal symptoms, lymphopenia, and high inflammatory markers. Clinical syndromes such as myocarditis and Kawasaki disease were present in only one third of cases each one. Pediatric intensive care unit admission was frequent, although length of stay was less than 1 week, and mortality was low. Most patients received immunoglobulin or steroids, although the level of evidence for that treatment is low. The PIMS-ST was recently described, and the detailed quantitative pooled data will increase clinicians' awareness, improve diagnosis, and promptly start treatment. This analysis also highlights the necessity of future collaborative studies, given the heterogeneous nature of the PIMS-TS.