Cardiopulmonary Exercise Performance and Endothelial Function in Convalescent COVID-19 Patients.

ABSTRACT: Endothelial dysfunction has been proposed as the common pathogenic background of most manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Among these, some authors also reported an impaired exercise response during cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). We aimed to explore the potential association between endothelial dysfunction and the reduced CPET performance in COVID-19 survivors. 36 consecutive COVID-19 survivors underwent symptom-limited incremental CPET and assessment of endothelium-dependent flow-mediate dilation (FMD) according to standardized protocols. A significantly higher FMD was documented in patients with a preserved, as compared to those with a reduced, exercise capacity (4.11% ± 2.08 vs. 2.54% ± 1.85, p = 0.048), confirmed in a multivariate analysis (β = 0.899, p = 0

SUBMITTER: Ambrosino P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8911200 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature