TY - JOUR T1 - Longitudinal follow-up of postacute COVID-19 syndrome: DL<sub>CO</sub>, quality-of-life and MRI pulmonary gas-exchange abnormalities JF - Thorax JO - Thorax DO - 10.1136/thorax-2022-219378 SP - thorax-2022-219378 AU - Alexander M Matheson AU - Marrissa J McIntosh AU - Harkiran K Kooner AU - Mohamed Abdelrazek AU - Mitchell S Albert AU - Inderdeep Dhaliwal AU - J Michael Nicholson AU - Alexei Ouriadov AU - Sarah Svenningsen AU - Grace Parraga Y1 - 2023/01/03 UR - http://thorax.bmj.com/content/early/2023/01/03/thorax-2022-219378.abstract N2 - 129Xe MRI red blood cell to alveolar tissue plasma ratio (RBC:TP) abnormalities have been observed in ever-hospitalised and never-hospitalised people with postacute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS). But, it is not known if such abnormalities resolve when symptoms and quality-of-life scores improve. We evaluated 21 participants with PACS, 7±4 months (baseline) and 14±4 months (follow-up) postinfection. Significantly improved diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO, Δ=14%pred ;95%CI 7 to 21, p&lt;0.001), postexertional dyspnoea (Δ=−0.7; 95%CI=−0.2 to –1.2, p=0.019), St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire-score (SGRQ Δ=−6; 95% CI=−1 to –11, p=0.044) but not RBC:TP (Δ=0.03; 95% CI=0.01 to 0.05, p=0.051) were observed at 14 months. DLCO correlated with RBC:TP (r=0.60, 95% CI=0.22 to 0.82, p=0.004) at 7 months. While DLCO and SGRQ measurements improved, these values did not normalise 14 months post-infection. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04584671. ER -