Cardiopulmonary Exercise Tests in Patients With Long COVID

Plain-language summary

The value of clinical cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) within healthcare settings has been established in the last decade. CPET methods remain highly relevant in the COVID-19 endemic phase and should be used to assess those recovering from COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. This diagnostic tool could play an integral role in disease prognostication and evaluate the integrative response to incremental exercise. Date from such assessments can enable practitioners to characterise cardio-respiratory fitness and identify reasons for physical impairment or abnormal cardio-respiratory function. More than 50% of patients admitted to hospital will experience cardiorespiratory issues and significant morbidity during their recovery and will require significant rehabilitative support. In this context, measurements obtained from an assessment of cardio-respiratory responses to physiological stress could provide insight regarding the integrity of the pulmonary-vascular interface and characterisation of any impairment or abnormal cardio-respiratory function. Current approaches to rehabilitation are being developed on existing knowledge from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) related illness. These provide important insight but do not provide insight into the novel challenges provided by COVID-19.

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