Development of Interstitial Lung Disease in Patients With Severe SARS-CoV-2 Infection
Pulmonary function tests · Not specified
About this trial
COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, currently poses a global economic, social, political and medical challenge. The virus originated in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has spread rapidly around the world. Currently, European countries, including Austria, are severely affected.The most common computed tomographic changes in acute lung injury include bilateral and subpleural milk glass opacity, consolidation in lower lobes, or both. In the intermediate phase of the infection (4-14 days after the onset of symptoms) a so-called "crazy paving" may occur. The most prominent radiological changes occur around day 10, followed by gradual resolution, which begins two weeks after the onset of symptoms. Given the phylogenetic relationship between SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, the similar clinical course in severe cases and overlapping CT patterns in the acute setting, persistent radiological and pulmonary functional changes in survivors are conceivable. It is also conceivable that a proportion of survivors will develop progressive ILD, either due to viral or ventilator-induced alveolar damage, or both. Here, the investigators intend to investigate COVID-19 survivors through clinical examinations, functional lung examinations, HR-CT scans, and by determining the "immunofibrotic" pattern in peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMCs) 1, 3, and 6 months after discharge.