Is exercise capacity reduced in adults with Long COVID symptoms compared to those without symptoms more than 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection?
Cardiopulmonary exercise testing demonstrates reduced exercise capacity in adults with Long COVID symptoms, potentially driven by autonomic, endothelial, or muscular dysfunction rather than just deconditioning.
The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis study suggest that exercise capacity was reduced more than 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection among individuals with symptoms consistent with LC compared with individuals without LC symptoms, with low confidence. Potential mechanisms for exertional intolerance other than deconditioning include altered autonomic function (eg, chronotropic incompetence, dysfunctional breathing), endothelial dysfunction, and muscular or mitochondrial pathology.
Durstenfeld et al. (Wed,) studied this question.