Background:

People with post-COVID-19 often suffer from long-term symptoms like fatigue, dyspnea or weakness. It has already been shown that a rehabilitation program (RP) has a positive effect on exercise capacity in patients with post-COVID-19.

Objective:

To examine the effect of an symptom-based RP compared to usual care on cardiopulmonary exercise capacity.

Methods:

40 post-COVID-19 patients out of the randomized controlled ReLoAd -trial (NCT05172206) participated in a multimodal 3-week inpatient RP (Intervention group, IG) [n=22] with therapies according to cluster assignment (fatigue, cognitive, soma) or received usual care (control group, CG) [n=18]. All patients completed two cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPET), one at baseline and one after 3 weeks.

Results:

Post-COVID-19 patients (IG: age 49±13yrs, DLCO 84±13%/pred, VO2peak: 1653±633ml/min, PWR: 137Watt; CG : 51±11yrs, DLCO 87±15%pred, VO2peak: 1647±475ml/min, PWR: 137Watt) were enrolled 13±6 (IG) and 8±3 (CG) months after the acute infection to this trial. At baseline, exercise intolerance (VO2peak<80%pred.) was observed in 45% of the IG and 44% of the CG. After 3 weeks, only IG showed significant improvements in VO2peak (IG:?+175 95%CI [31-318]ml/min, p=0.021 vs. CG:?+77 95%CI [-91-245]ml/min, p=0.231) and exercise capacity (IG:?+12 95%CI [1-23]W, p=0.02 vs. CG:?+2 95%CI [-9-13]W, p=0.796). No between group differences were observed.

Conclusions:

There were no significant between-group differences seen, however only IG showed significant improvements in cardiopulmonary exercise capacity.