Limited recovery from post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) at eight months in a prospective cohort

There is increasing recognition of the prolonged illness following acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-1). In a longitudinal cohort of 99 patients, 32% reported persistent symptoms and 19% had Long COVID (Defined as fatigue or dyspnoea or chest tightness) at median 240 days after initial infection. There was no significant improvement in symptoms or measures of health-related quality of life between 4 and 8-month assessments. In multivariable analysis, female gender (OR 3.2, 95%CI 1.3-7.8, p=0.01) and acute COVID-19 hospitalisation (OR 3.8, 95% 1.1-13.6, p=0.04) were independently associated with Long COVID at 8-months. Only 80% patients reported full recovery at 8 months. Further research is required to understand the immunologic correlates of abnormal recovery and the long-term significance. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Clinical Trial ACTRN12620000554965 ### Funding Statement We acknowledge the support of the Curran Foundation and the St Vincent's Clinic Foundation for the grant support. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: St Vincents Hospital Research Ethics Committee 2020/ETH00964 All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes There is no external datasets or supplementary material online that pertain to this manuscript.