Page 39 - Living-on-the-frontline-of-COVID-19-in-MCO-and-CMCO

Study 1: Comparison between SARS patients

with and those without evidence of fibrosis

A post SARS study done by Gregory et al. showed fibrosis was seen in 62% of the 24

symptomatic patients with SARS after treatment with symptoms of exertional
shortness of breath and reduced exercise tolerance [1]. In this study, they divided

patients into two groups: i) group 1 consists of patients with evidence of fibrosis on
CT scan, n=15 and ii) group 2 is without evidence of fibrosis on CT scan, n=9. If you
look at the profile patients that have evidence of fibrosis, the majority are men as

compared to group 2, predominantly are female. The length of stay and the length
of ICU admission are much longer in group 1, which consists of patients with lung
fibrosis, and they received higher pulse steroid therapy during admission. They

have even higher peak radiographic opacification and more abnormal segments on
thin-section CT scan as compared to group 2 which without evidence of fibrosis.
Besides discovering 62% of the patients having fibrosis, the patients also presented

with symptoms of exertion of shortness of breath and reduced exercise tolerance.