Cardiorespiratory Test Performance in Young Adults post SARS-CoV-2 Infection Compared to Negative Controls

Poster
Conference

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Author

Thibault Lovey

Published

May 24, 2023

Event details

  18th Conference of the International Society of Travel Medicine (CISTM18)
  May 14th, 2023
  10:30-11:15 EEST
  Congress Center Basel, Basel, Switzerland

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Overview

Cardiorespiratory Test Performance in Young Adults post SARS-CoV-2 Infection Compared to Negative Controls

T. Lovey1, N. Gültekin2, J. Deuel1, P. Schlagenhauf1,3

1 University of Zürich, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, Zürich, Switzerland

2 Military Sevices, Swiss Armed Forces, Ittigen, Switzerland

3 University of Zürich, WHO Collaborating Centre for Travellers’ Health, Department of Global and Public Health, MilMedBiol Competence Centre,Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

Topic: COVID-19

Background: Several reports suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection sequelae persist months after the acute stage of the infection even in previously healthy young persons.

Objectives: We sought to evaluate cardiorespiratory function in young personnel from the Swiss Armed Forces using a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) and to compare test results in study participants who had a previous confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection with non-exposed controls.

Methods: A standardized cardiopulmonary exercise test was done on a treadmill to evaluate fitness, heart rate, blood pressure, inspiratory and expiratory CO2 and O2 concentrations.

Results: We evaluated 177 participants who had a SARS-CoV-2 infection more than 6 months previously, 251 controls with negative serology, 19 participants with a recent infection, and 46 asymptomatically infected individuals. Baseline characteristics were balanced in all groups. Less than 10% of participants in each group reported having asthma, and more than 75% were physically active at least once a week. No significant differences were found in spirometric measurements, but there was strong evidence of differences in the CPET measures of percent oxygen consumption (p-value: 0.013) and work rate (p-value: 0.014) at the anaerobic threshold (AT1) between the control and the SARS-CoV-2 infected groups.

Conclusions: The study found that young persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 even > 6 months previously had significant differences in cardiovascular fitness and endurance compared to healthy controls. More research is needed to evaluate the trajectory of symptom persistence beyond one year.