1 INTRODUCTION

Despite more than 148 million infected people, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) respiratory intermediate- and long-term survivors' outcome remains largely unknown. Lungs are the main COVID-19 target organ, and 5%-10% patients progress to critical disease including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).¹ Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) performed at discharge from hospital showed that >80% of patients with severe COVID-19 had lung function impairment.² Observational studies in coronavirus-infected patients (SARS-CoV-1 in 2003 or Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012) suggested that functional limitations due to pulmonary fibrosis and other patterns of lung damage may persist after severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).^3-5 A recent publication reported persistent respiratory abnormalities four months after severe/critical COVID-19.⁶ Currently, results of pulmonary assessment beyond 4 months are not available. The main objective of this study was to identify the patients who will benefit from a first respiratory assessment and determine when and how to evaluate them. Indeed, several follow-up strategies have been proposed but no consensus exists, mainly because of the lack of clinical, radiological and functional middle-term data.^7-9

中文翻译：

---

COVID-19 住院后的呼吸随访：谁和何时？

1 简介

尽管感染人数超过 1.48 亿，但 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 呼吸道中期和长期幸存者的结果仍然很大程度上未知。肺是 COVID-19 的主要靶器官，5%-10% 的患者进展为包括急性呼吸窘迫综合征 (ARDS) 在内的危重疾病。¹出院时进行的肺功能测试 (PFT) 显示，>80% 的重症 COVID-19 患者有肺功能损害。²对冠状病毒感染患者的观察性研究（2003 年的 SARS-CoV-1 或 2012 年的中东呼吸综合征 (MERS)）表明，在严重急性呼吸综合征 (SARS ）。^3-5最近的一份出版物报告了严重/严重 COVID-19 后四个月的持续呼吸异常。⁶目前，尚无超过 4 个月的肺部评估结果。本研究的主要目的是确定将从第一次呼吸评估中受益的患者，并确定何时以及如何评估他们。事实上，已经提出了几种后续策略，但没有达成共识，主要是因为缺乏临床、放射学和功能性中期数据。^7-9