PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Claire F McGroder AU - David Zhang AU - Mohammad A Choudhury AU - Mary M Salvatore AU - Belinda M D'Souza AU - Eric A Hoffman AU - Ying Wei AU - Matthew R Baldwin AU - Christine Kim Garcia TI - Pulmonary fibrosis 4 months after COVID-19 is associated with severity of illness and blood leucocyte telomere length AID - 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217031 DP - 2021 Apr 29 TA - Thorax PG - thoraxjnl-2021-217031 4099 - http://thorax.bmj.com/content/early/2021/04/28/thoraxjnl-2021-217031.short 4100 - http://thorax.bmj.com/content/early/2021/04/28/thoraxjnl-2021-217031.full AB - The risk factors for development of fibrotic-like radiographic abnormalities after severe COVID-19 are incompletely described and the extent to which CT findings correlate with symptoms and physical function after hospitalisation remains unclear. At 4 months after hospitalisation, fibrotic-like patterns were more common in those who underwent mechanical ventilation (72%) than in those who did not (20%). We demonstrate that severity of initial illness, duration of mechanical ventilation, lactate dehydrogenase on admission and leucocyte telomere length are independent risk factors for fibrotic-like radiographic abnormalities. These fibrotic-like changes correlate with lung function, cough and measures of frailty, but not with dyspnoea.