Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33220049›Full record

ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2021

Comprehensive Health Assessment 3 Months After Recovery From Acute Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Bram van den Borst, Jeannette B Peters, Monique Brink, Yvonne Schoon, Chantal P Bleeker-Rovers, Henk Schers, Hieronymus W H van Hees, Hanneke van Helvoort, Mark van den Boogaard, Hans van der Hoeven and 4 more

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PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 274 papers, 19 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
274citing papers in PubMed, 19 pooled it
34.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

274 citing papers in PubMed, 19 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 491 citations in OpenAlex.

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  6. Global prevalence of post-COVID-19 condition: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective evidence.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2025
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  12. COVID-19 associated cognitive impairment: A systematic review.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2022
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  13. ESCMID rapid guidelines for assessment and management of long COVID.Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases · 2022
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214 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

14 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Bram van den BorstDepartment of Pulmonary Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-4597-2722
Jeannette B PetersDepartment of Pulmonary Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Monique BrinkDepartment of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Anatomy, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Yvonne SchoonDepartment of Geriatric Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Chantal P Bleeker-RoversDepartment of Internal Medicine and Radboud Center for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Henk SchersDepartment of Primary Care Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Hieronymus W H van HeesDepartment of Pulmonary Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Hanneke van HelvoortDepartment of Pulmonary Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Mark van den BoogaardDepartment of Intensive Care, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Hans van der HoevenDepartment of Intensive Care, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Monique H ReijersDepartment of Pulmonary Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Mathias ProkopDepartment of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Anatomy, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Jan VercoulenDepartment of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Michel van den HeuvelDepartment of Pulmonary Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Radboud University Nijmegen · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundLong-term health sequelae of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may be multiple but have thus far not been systematically studied.

methodsAll patients discharged after COVID-19 from the Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, were consecutively invited to a multidisciplinary outpatient facility. Also, nonadmitted patients with mild disease but with symptoms persisting >6 weeks could be referred by general practitioners. Patients underwent a standardized assessment including measurements of lung function, chest computed tomography (CT)/X-ray, 6-minute walking test, body composition, and questionnaires on mental, cognitive, health status, and quality of life (QoL).

results124 patients (59 ± 14 years, 60% male) were included: 27 with mild, 51 with moderate, 26 with severe, and 20 with critical disease. Lung diffusion capacity was below the lower limit of normal in 42% of discharged patients. 99% of discharged patients had reduced ground-glass opacification on repeat CT imaging, and normal chest X-rays were found in 93% of patients with mild disease. Residual pulmonary parenchymal abnormalities were present in 91% of discharged patients and correlated with reduced lung diffusion capacity. Twenty-two percent had low exercise capacity, 19% low fat-free mass index, and problems in mental and/or cognitive function were found in 36% of patients. Health status was generally poor, particularly in the domains functional impairment (64%), fatigue (69%), and QoL (72%).

conclusionsThis comprehensive health assessment revealed severe problems in several health domains in a substantial number of ex-COVID-19 patients. Longer follow-up studies are warranted to elucidate natural trajectories and to find predictors of complicated long-term trajectories of recovery.

Indexed as

COVID-19Lung DiseasesAgedFemaleHumansLungMaleMiddle AgedQuality of LifeSARS-CoV-2COVID-19fatiguehealth statusmultidisciplinarypost-acutesequelae of COVID-19

Identifiers

PMID33220049
PMCPMC7717214
OpenAlexW3110470060

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.