Based on the results of randomized clinical trials (RCT) assessing direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) for the treatment of patients with cancer-associated thrombosis (CAT), DOACs have been proposed as alternative to low molecular weight heparin by several international guidelines. However, the proportion of CAT patients who would have not been eligible for such trials is currently unknown. Our primary aim was to assess the proportion of patients seen in clinical practice for acute CAT who would not have been eligible for CARAVAGGIO or HOKUSAI-VTE RCT. Secondary aim was to describe patients outcomes according to eligibility. In a multicenter, observational study, all patients consecutively admitted from January 2017 to December 2019 for an acute CAT event were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were classified according to the presence or absence of non-inclusion criteria for CARAVAGGIO or HOKUSAI-VTE RCT. Event free survival during a 6-month follow-up were analyzed as secondary endpoints. Among the 302 patients (women: 53 %, mean age: 67.9 ± 13.2) analyzed, 138 (46 %) for HOKUSAI-VTE cancer and 161 (53 %) for CARAVAGGIO met one or more non-inclusion criteria. Main criteria were upper limb and unsual site thrombosis (n = 63, 18.5 %), anemia/thrombopenia (n = 43, 14.2 %), brain tumors (n = 33, 10.9 %), ECOG PS >2 (n = 28, 9.3 %), severe renal failure (n = 16, 5.3 %). At 6 months, the event-free survival rate was not statistically different between the two groups. Almost half of CAT patients would have not been able to participate to a modern DOAC RCT. Evaluation of DOACs safety and efficacy in this subset of patients deserves further research.
Background: Endothelial dysfunction is a key-feature in acute COVID-19. However, follow-up data regarding endothelial dysfunction and injury after COVID-19 infection are lacking. We aimed to investigate the changes in endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation at baseline and four months after hospital discharge in COVID-19 patients. Methods: Twenty COVID-19 patients were compared to 24 healthy controls. Clinical and morphological data were collected after hospital admission for SARS-CoV-2 infection and reactive hyperaemia index (RHI) measurement was performed with a delay between 24 and 48 h after hospital admission and four months after hospital discharge in the outpatient clinics. Blood tests including inflammatory markers and measurement of post-occlusive vasorelaxation by digital peripheral arterial tonometry were performed at both visits. Results: At baseline, COVID-19 patients exhibited reduced RHI compared to controls (p < 0.001), in line with an endothelial dysfunction. At four months follow-up, there was a 51% increase in the RHI (1.69 +/- 0.32 to 2.51 +/- 0.91; p < 0.01) in favor of endothelium-dependent vascular relaxation recovery. RHI changes were positively correlated with baseline C-reactive protein (r = 0.68; p = 0.02). Compared to COVID-19 patients with a decrease in RHI, COVID-19 patients with an increase in RHI beyond the day-to-day variability (i.e. >11%) had less severe systemic inflammation at baseline. Conclusion: Convalescent COVID-19 patients showed a recovery of systemic artery endothelial dysfunction, in particular patients with lower inflammation at baseline. Further studies are needed to decipher the interplay between inflammation and endothelial dysfunction in COVID-19 patients.
We herein report a case of putative everolimus-associated chylothorax in a cardiac transplant recipient. A 17-year-old Japanese boy with dilated cardiomyopathy and severe cardiac failure requiring left ventricular assist support was determined to be a cardiac transplant candidate in 1992. He underwent overseas heart transplantation in Houston, Texas in October 1992. He was subsequently treated with immunosuppression therapy: Cyclosporine (CSA), azathioprine, and prednisolone (PRD). After several acute rejection episodes requiring steroid therapy, intravascular ultrasonography revealed a moderate degree of transplant coronary arterial vasculopathy (TCAV) with 50% stenosis in 2003. He underwent coronary stenting twice; the immunosuppressive regimen was converted to CSA, mycophenolate mofetil, everolimus (EVL), and PRD in 2006. TCAV has not progressed since then. In October 2008, chest x-ray showed bilateral pleural effusion. As we thought that the pleural effusion was caused by cardiac dysfunction due to moderate mitral regurgitation and TCAV as well as renal impairment, he was treated with diuretics and digoxin. However, the pleural effusion progressed gradually associated with exertional dyspnea and moderate edema of his lower legs. Chest computed tomography showed massive bilateral pleural effusions without evidence of malignancy in 2011. A pleural tap in 2011 revealed chylothorax. Although mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors were major drugs for lymphoangioleimyomatosis, we believed that the chylothorax was associated with EVL. EVL was discontinued in March 2011: the chylothorax spontaneously resolved in November 2011.
Background: GAP (gender-age-physiology) and TORVAN are multi-parametric prognostication scores for idio- pathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). We compared their prognostic value in patients treated with nintedanib or pirfenidone and explored their effect on patient survival in relation to disease staging. Study design and patients: Retrospective evaluation of 235 naive IPF patients (M=179; mean age 69.8 yrs +/- 7.1; 102 treated with nintedanib and 133 with pirfenidone), referred to two Italian academic centers between February 2012 and December 2019. Results: During a median follow-up of 4.2 years, the incidence rate of death was 14.5 per 100 person-years (95% CI: 12 to 17.4), with no differences between nintedanib and pirfenidone (log-rank p=0.771). According to time-ROC analysis, GAP and TORVAN showed a similar discrimination performance at 1, 2, and 5 years. Survival of GAP-2/GAP-3 IPF patients treated with nintedanib was worse than that of patients in GAP-1 (HR 4.8, 95% CI: 2.2 to 10.5 and HR 9.4, 95% CI: 3.8 to 23.2). TORVAN I patients treated with nintedanib exhibited better survival than those in stages III (HR 3.1, 95% CI: 1.4 to 6.6) and IV (HR 10.5, 95% CI: 3.5 to 31.6). A significant treatment x stage interaction was observed for both disease staging indexes (p=0.042 for treatment by GAP interaction and p=0.046 for treatment by TORVAN interaction). A better survival was associated with nintedanib in patients with mild disease (GAP-1 or TORVAN I stage) and with pirfenidone in GAP-3 or TOR-VAN IV cases, although these findings did not always reach statistical significance. Conclusions: GAP and TORVAN similarly perform in IPF patients on anti-fibrotic therapy. However, the survival of patients treated with nintedanib and pirfenidone appears to be differently affected by disease staging. (c) 2023 SPLF and Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
BACKGROUND:Spirometry is the gold standard for diagnosis of impaired pulmonary function, but is often unavailable in resource-constrained settings. Some authors have suggested using peak expiratory flow (PEF) to screen for impaired pulmonary function when spirometry is unavailable, but with no consensus on how to define abnormally low PEF. Strategies have included cutoffs based on absolute value of PEF, PEF in percent predicted, PEF Z-score, PEF × height-2, and gender-specific cutoffs of absolute PEF. The objective of this paper is to determine the PEF interpretation strategy with the highest predictive ability for low pulmonary function, with spirometry as the gold standard. METHODS:We analyzed data on individuals aged 40-79 years in the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2012. 6,144 individuals fulfilled inclusion criteria for the main analysis. For each PEF interpretation strategy, we calculated the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) for the detection of low pulmonary function (defined by FEV1 Z-score < -1.645, < -2, < -2.5 or < -3). RESULTS:The AUC was substantially and statistically significantly higher for PEF in percent predicted and PEF Z-score than for absolute value and PEF × height-2, including after stratification by gender. There was no difference in AUC between PEF in percent predicted and PEF Z-score. CONCLUSION:If using PEF to screen adults aged 40 years or older for impaired pulmonary function defined by low FEV1 Z-score, basing cutoffs on PEF in percent predicted or PEF Z-score may result in improved predictive ability. As percent predicted is a mathematically simpler term than Z-score, it may be preferable to use cutoffs based on PEF in percent predicted.
Rationale: Direct intratumoral delivery of cisplatin via endobronchial ultrasound guided-transbronchial needle injections (EBUS-TBNI) is a novel approach for salvage treatment of advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The goal of this study was to evaluate changes in the tumor immune microenvironment during the course of EBUS-TBNI cisplatin therapy. Methods: Under an IRB approved protocol, patients with recurrence after radiation therapy who were not receiving other cytotoxic therapy, were prospectively enrolled, and underwent weekly treatments with EBUS-TBNI with additional biopsies obtained for research. Needle aspiration was performed prior to cisplatin delivery at each procedure. Samples were evaluated by flow cytometry for the presence of immune cell types. Results: Three of the six patients responded to the therapy based on RECIST criteria. Compared to the pretreatment baseline, intratumoral neutrophils increased in 5 of the 6 patients (p = 0.041), with an average increase of 27.1%, but was not associated with response. A lower pre-treatment CD8+/CD4+ ratio at baseline was associated with response (P = 0.01). Responders demonstrated a lower final proportion of PD-1+ CD8+ T cells compared to non-responders (8.6% vs. 62.3%, respectively, P<0.001. Lower doses of intratumoral cisplatin were associated with subsequent increases in CD8+ T cells within the tumor microenvironment (P = 0.008). Conclusions: EBUS-TBNI cisplatin resulted in significant alterations in the tumor immune microenvironment. Further studies are needed to determine if the changes seen here generalize to larger cohorts. (C) 2023 SPLF and Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Background: Computational advances in artificial intelligence have led to the recent emergence of U-Net con-volutional neural networks (CNNs) applied to medical imaging. Our objectives were to assess the progression of fibrotic interstitial lung disease (ILD) using routine CT scans processed by a U-Net CNN developed by our research team, and to identify a progression threshold indicative of poor prognosis.Methods: CT scans and clinical history of 32 patients with idiopathic fibrotic ILDs were retrospectively reviewed. Successive CT scans were processed by the U-Net CNN and ILD quantification was obtained. Corre-lation between ILD and FVC changes was assessed. ROC curve was used to define a threshold of ILD progres-sion rate (PR) to predict poor prognostic (mortality or lung transplantation). The PR threshold was used to compare the cohort survival with Kaplan Mayer curves and log-rank test.Results: The follow-up was 3.8 +/- 1.5 years encompassing 105 CT scans, with 3.3 +/- 1.1 CT scans per patient. A significant correlation between ILD and FVC changes was obtained (p = 0.004, r =-0.30 [95% CI:-0.16 to-0.45]). Sixteen patients (50%) experienced unfavorable outcome including 13 deaths and 3 lung transplanta-tions. ROC curve analysis showed an aera under curve of 0.83 (p < 0.001), with an optimal cut-off PR value of 4%/year. Patients exhibiting a PR >= 4%/year during the first two years had a poorer prognosis (p = 0.001).Conclusions: Applying a U-Net CNN to routine CT scan allowed identifying patients with a rapid progression and unfavorable outcome.(c) 2023 SPLF and Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Introduction: Nebulization plays a key role in the treatment of cystic fibrosis. The Favorite function couple to jet nebulizers (AKITA (R)) emerged recently. The aim of this study was to assess the efficiency of the lung delivery by the AKITA (R) by comparing the urinary concentration of amikacin after nebulization with the AKITA (R) and the eFlow rapid (R), in healthy subjects and patients with CF (PwCF). Method: The two samples (healthy subjects and PwCF) were randomized (cross-over 1:1) for two nebulizations (500 mg of amikacin diluted in 4 mL of normal saline solution), with the AKITA (R) and with the eFlow rapid (R). The primary endpoint was the amount of urinary excretion of amikacin over 24 h. The constant of elimination (Ke) was calculated based on the maximal cumulative urinary amikacin excretion plotted over time.Results: The total amount of urinary amikacin excretion was greater when AKITA (R) was used in PwCF (11.7 mg (8.2-14.1) vs 6.1 mg (3.7-13.3); p = 0.02) but not different in healthy subjects (14.5 mg (11.7 -18.5) vs 12.4 mg (8.0-17.1); p = 0.12). The duration of the nebulization was always shorter with eFlow rap-id (R) than with AKITA (R) (PwCF: 6.5 +/- 0.6 min vs 9.2 +/- 1.8 min; p = 0.001 - Healthy: 4.7 +/- 1.3 min vs 9.7 +/- 1.6 min; p = 0.03). The constant of elimination was similar between the two modalities in CF subjects (0.153 (0.071-0.205) vs 0.149 (0.041-0.182); p = 0.26) and in healthy subjects (0.166 (0.130-0.218) vs 0.167 (0.119-0.210), p = 0.25).Conclusion: the Favorite inhalation is better to deliver a specific amount of drug than a mesh nebulizer (eFlow rapid (R)) in PwCF but not in healthy subjects. (c) 2023 SPLF and Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Over the last few years, the advent of balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) had led to changes in the man-agement of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). We reviewed data from 98 CTEPH patients diagnosed during the last decade in a pulmonary hypertension (PH) expert centre. The management modalities of 2 periods (Period A: 2011-15 and Period B: 2016-20) were compared. Age (period A: 72 [58 -80] years; period B: 69 [62-79] years), clinical (New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class III-IV: 25/41, 61% vs 39/57, 68%), and hemodynamic assessments (pulmonary vascular resistance: 7.5 [6.2-8.7] WU vs 8.0 [6.0-10.2] WU) at baseline were not significantly different. Pulmonary endarterectomy was performed in less than one third of patients (12, 29.3% vs 15, 26.3%). For patients not eligible for surgery, medical therapy was mostly prescribed alone during period A (medical therapy alone, patients diagnosed in period A: 61% vs in period B: 17.5%) while it was associated with BPA during period B (medical therapy + BPA, 12% vs 61.4%). The 5-year survival rate was excellent for patients who underwent surgery (96.3%) or BPA (95.2%), but was only 42.1% for patients under oral medication only (p < 0.0001). Patients diagnosed with CTEPH who cannot be operated should undergo BPA. The survival rate after BPA is as good as after surgery and significantly bet-ter than that of oral medication only.& COPY; 2023 SPLF and Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Introduction: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in France and has a 5-year survival rate of 20%. Recent prospective randomized controlled trials revealed that lung cancer-specific mortality decreased in patients who underwent screening using low-dose chest computed tomography (low-dose CT). The DEP KP80 pilot study conducted in 2016 showed that an organized lung cancer screening campaign involving general practitioners was feasible.Material and method: We conducted a descriptive observational study of screening practices by sending a self-reported questionnaire to 1013 general practitioners practicing in the Hauts-de-France region. Our study's primary aim was to investigate the knowledge and practices of general practitioners in the Hauts-de-France region of France regarding lung cancer screening using low-dose CT. The secondary end-point was to compare practices between general practitioners in the Somme department who had experi-ence of experimental screening and their colleagues in the rest of the region. Results: The response rate was 18.8% (190 completed questionnaires). Even though 69.5% of the physicians were unaware of the potential benefits of organized low-dose CT screening for lung cancer, 76% proposed screening tests for individual patients. Despite its proven ineffectiveness, chest radiography was still the most widely recommended screening modality. Half of the physicians stated that they had already pre-scribed chest CT to screen for lung cancer. Additionally, only 36.3% proposed chest CT screening for patients aged over 50 years with a history of more than 30 pack-years. The physicians working in the Somme depart-ment (61% had participated in the DEP KP80 pilot study) were more aware of low-dose CT as a screening modality, and offered it significantly more than their colleagues in the other departments (61.1% vs 13.4% p<0.01). All the physicians were in favor of an organized screening program.Conclusion: More than a third of general practitioners in the Hauts-de-France region offered for lung cancer screening using chest CT, although only 18% specified low-dose CT. Before an organized screening program can be set up, good practice guidelines must be made available about lung cancer screening.(c) 2023 SPLF and Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Background: Data on long-term survivors with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with nivolumab are available from randomized trials. Characteristics, management, and healthcare resources of those patients need to be confirmed with real-world data.Methods: The UNIVOC retrospective observational study included all patients with advanced NSCLC recorded in the French national hospital database starting nivolumab in 2015 and followed them until December 2020. The Kaplan-Meier method estimated the overall survival (OS). A machine learning approach identified patients with similar treatment sequences.Results: Within the 3,050 patients who had nivolumab initiation,5-year OS rate was 14.6 % (95 %CI 13.3 %-16.2 %). In total, data covering at least 5 years of follow-up were retrieved for 231 surviving patients. Survivors were younger, often female and had fewer comorbidities than non-survivors. Three clusters of patients with different nivolumab treatment durations were identified: 1/ Continuous nivolumab treatment; 2/ Long period of nivolumab treatment followed by chemotherapy or no treatment; 3/ Short period of nivolu-mab treatment then chemotherapy or no treatment. At 5 years, 61.0 % of survivors were no longer receiving systemic therapy, 26.4 % were treated with nivolumab, 8.7 % chemotherapy, and 3.9 % other immunothera-pies. Among 5-y survivor patients, the average number of hospitalisations per patient decreased from 23.4 to 12.8 between the 1st and the 5th year. In the 5th year, 46 % of patients had no more hospitalization for lung cancer.Conclusions: This large nationwide study confirms the long-term benefit of nivolumab treatment for advanced NSCLC patients in the real-world setting, with a 5-year survival rate similar to that reported in clinical trials.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC -ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Background: Tocilizumab is presumed to be an effective and safe treatment for severe SARS-Cov-2, but its usefulness has not been investigated yet for long-term outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of tocilizumab on mortality in patients with SARS-CoV-2 throughout the year following discharge.Methods: A retrospective observational analysis was performed on electronic medical records of patients with SARS-CoV2 who were discharged from our hospital after surviving the first wave in March-April 2020. Logistic regression was used to analyse the effect of tocilizumab on mortality, as the main outcome, and propensity-score analysis to further validate their effect. Secondary outcomes were readmissions, persistent symptoms and lung function evolution. Patients were selected by matching their individual propensity for receiving therapy with tocilizumab, conditional on their demographic and clinical variables.Results: A total of 405 patients were included in the mortality study (33.6 % were treated with tocilizumab) and 390 were included in the assessment of persistent symptoms. After propensity-score analysis, no association between tocilizumab use and 1-year overall mortality was found (HR= 2.05, 95 % CI: 0.21-19.98). No differences regarding persistent symptoms (OR= 1.01 95 %CI 0.57-1.79), nor lung function parameters (forced vital capacity: coefficient-0.16 95 %CI-0.45 to 0.14) were found throughout the year follow-up between control and tocilizumab group.Conclusions: The administration of tocilizumab in patients with SARS-CoV-2 did not show any effect on long-term mortality. Identically, no association were found regarding readmissions, persistent symptoms or lung function evolution and tocilizumab administration in our cohort of patients after 1 year follow-up.(c) 2023 SPLF and Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Background: Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) is the most common type of EDS. Apart from joint symptoms, people with hEDS have systemic manifestations as a chronic modification of the breathing pattern (functional respiratory complaints (FRCs)) and mental disorders. However, the prevalence of FRCs, and its relationship with mental disorders, have not yet been estimated for this population. Objectives: To assess the FRCs, central sensitization, disease perception, depression, and anxiety in people with hEDS from Belgium; and to identify the clustering of FRCs and determine any association with the characteristics assessed for this sample. Methods: This cross-sectional study assessed socio-demographic characteristics, Nijmegen questionnaire (NQ), Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI), Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depres-sion Scale (HADS) in people with hEDS from Belgium. A two-step cluster analysis was performed to identify clusters according to NQ, and to understand how the other questionnaires are grouped among these clusters.Results: The Spearman correlation coefficients showed that all the outcomes were significantly and positively correlated with each other (p<0.05). Furthermore, 84.9% of the sample had symptoms suggestive of FRCs, and 54.3% had probable anxiety. Three clusters were grouped (no FRCs, mild FRCs, and severe FRCs), with NQ, HADS-D and CSI-part A being the variables that contributed the most. People from cluster of severe FRCs got the worst scores for all the questionnaires. Conclusion: FRCs, central sensitization, depression, and anxiety are prevalent comorbidities in people with hEDS. Moreover, those people with FRCs had worse results in the investigated parameters, with depression being the variable that contributed the most to the clusters of FRCs. Consequently, investigating mechanisms for these co-occurring symptom profiles may improve our understanding of pathogenesis and indicate new management strategies to alleviate these symptoms and lead to the development of more effective care for persons with hEDS.& COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC -ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Lung function testing and lung imaging are commonly used techniques to monitor respiratory diseases, such as cystic fibrosis (CF). The nitrogen (N2) multiple-breath washout technique (MBW) has been shown to detect ventilation inhomogeneity in CF, but the underlying pathophysiological processes that are altered are often unclear. Dynamic oxygen-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (OE-MRI) could potentially be performed simultaneously with MBW because both techniques require breathing of 100% oxygen (O2) and may allow for visualisation of alterations underlying impaired MBW outcomes. However, simultaneous MBW and OE-MRI has never been assessed, potentially as it requires a magnetic resonance (MR) compatible MBW equipment. In this pilot study, we assessed whether MBW and OE-MRI can be performed simultaneously using a commercial MBW device that has been modified to be MR-compatible. We performed simultaneous measurements in five healthy volunteers aged 25-35 years. We obtained O2 and N2 concentrations from both techniques, and generated O2 wash-in time constant and N2 washout maps from OE-MRI data. We obtained good quality simultaneous measurements in two healthy volunteers due to technical challenges related to the MBW equipment and poor tolerance. Oxygen and N2 concentrations from both techniques, as well as O2 wash-in time constant maps and N2 washout maps could be obtained, suggesting that simultaneous measurements may have the potential to allow for comparison and visualization of regional differences in ventilation underlying impaired MBW outcomes. Simultaneous MBW and OE-MRI measurements can be performed with a modified MBW device and may help to understand MBW outcomes, but the measurements are challenging and have poor feasibility.
Background: Forced vital capacity (FVC) is routinely used to quantify the severity and identify the progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Although less commonly used, lung transfer of carbon monoxide (TLCO) correlates better with the severity of IPF than does FVC.Methods: Aiming at studying how FVC behaves in relation to TLCO, we analysed cross-sectional data from 430 IPF patients, of which 221 had at least 2 assessments (performed 2.4 +/- 1.9 years apart) available for longitudinal analyses. Thresholds for identifying "abnormal" FVC and TLCO values were the statistically-defined lower limits of normal (LLN). For patients with longitudinal data, mean annual absolute declines of FVC and TLCO were calculated. Results: The correlation between FVC and TLCO (%predicted) was weak (R2=0.21). FVC was "abnormal" (i.e., 38% of patients while 84% of patients had an "abnormal" TLCO. A large majority of the 268 patients with a "normal" FVC had nevertheless an "abnormal" TLCO (n = 209; 78%). On longitudinal analysis, 67/221 patients had an annual absolute decline in FVC >= 5%, 34/221 had an annual absolute decline in TLCO >= 10%, and 22 had both.Conclusion: In IPF, a "normal" FVC should be viewed with caution as it is most often associated with an "abnormal" TLCO, a parameter that is strongly correlated with the morphological extent of the disease. Only 1/3 of the patients with a FVC-based progression criterion also had a TLCO progression criterion. In contrast, 2/3 of patients with a TLCO progression criterion also had a FVC progression criterion.(c) 2023 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.
We performed this study to describe clinical, radiological and pulmonary function outcomes of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia 1 year after discharge from hospital.This is a prospective longitudinal study on patients admitted with COVID-19 pneumonia in March and April 2020. 162 patients were classified as moderate, severe or critical. Symptoms and pulmonary function were assessed at 3 months and 1 year after discharge. Chest CT scans were made during hospital admission, at 3 months and, in case of persistent radiological abnormalities, after 1 year.54% of patients reported full recovery of their pre-illness fitness after 1 year. 53% still reported exertional dyspnoea, independent of illness severity. DLCOc < 80% after 1 year was found in 74% of critical, 50% of severe and 38% of moderate cases. For KCOc<80%, no between-group difference was found. Restriction (TLC<80%) was found in 28% of critical, 5% of severe, and 13% of moderate cases. At baseline, chest CT score was significantly higher for the critical illness group, but after 1 year, there was no significant difference. Most resolution of abnormalities occurred before 3 months. A high prevalence of fibrotic lesions (24%) and subpleural banding (27%) was found.A large proportion of patients experience consequences of COVID-19 pneumonia one year after discharge, irrespective of initial disease severity. Follow-up of patients admitted with COVID-19 is therefore warranted. An evaluation of symptoms, pulmonary function and radiology three months after discharge can discriminate between patients with early complete recovery and those with persistent abnormalities.
