Modelling the long-term health impact of COVID-19 using Graphical Chain Models

Autor: K. Gourgoura, P. Rivadeneyra, E. Stanghellini, C. Caroni, F. Bartolucci, R. Curcio, S. Bartoli, R. Ferranti, I. Folletti, M. Cavallo, L. Sanesi, I. Dominioni, E. Santoni, G. Morgana, M. B. Pasticci, G. Pucci, G. Vaudo
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: BMC Infectious Diseases, Vol 24, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1471-2334
DOI: 10.1186/s12879-024-09777-0
Popis: Abstract Background Long-term sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, namely long COVID syndrome, affect about 10% of severe COVID-19 survivors. This condition includes several physical symptoms and objective measures of organ dysfunction resulting from a complex interaction between individual predisposing factors and the acute manifestation of disease. We aimed at describing the complexity of the relationship between long COVID symptoms and their predictors in a population of survivors of hospitalization for severe COVID-19-related pneumonia using a Graphical Chain Model (GCM). Methods 96 patients with severe COVID-19 hospitalized in a non-intensive ward at the “Santa Maria” University Hospital, Terni, Italy, were followed up at 3–6 months. Data regarding present and previous clinical status, drug treatment, findings recorded during the in-hospital phase, presence of symptoms and signs of organ damage at follow-up were collected. Static and dynamic cardiac and respiratory parameters were evaluated by resting pulmonary function test, echocardiography, high-resolution chest tomography (HRCT) and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). Results Twelve clinically most relevant factors were identified and partitioned into four ordered blocks in the GCM: block 1 - gender, smoking, age and body mass index (BMI); block 2 - admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) and length of follow-up in days; block 3 - peak oxygen consumption (VO2), forced expiratory volume at first second (FEV1), D-dimer levels, depression score and presence of fatigue; block 4 - HRCT pathological findings. Higher BMI and smoking had a significant impact on the probability of a patient’s admission to ICU. VO2 showed dependency on length of follow-up. FEV1 was related to the self-assessed indicator of fatigue, and, in turn, fatigue was significantly associated with the depression score. Notably, neither fatigue nor depression depended on variables in block 2, including length of follow-up. Conclusions The biological plausibility of the relationships between variables demonstrated by the GCM validates the efficacy of this approach as a valuable statistical tool for elucidating structural features, such as conditional dependencies and associations. This promising method holds potential for exploring the long-term health repercussions of COVID-19 by identifying predictive factors and establishing suitable therapeutic strategies.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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