Sustained Impairment in Cardiopulmonary Exercise Capacity Testing in Patients after COVID-19: A Single Center Experience

Abstract

Deterioration of EC was not associated with ventilatory or pulmonary vascular limitation. Exercise limitation was related to both reduced O₂ pulse and peakV̇O₂/kg, which, however, did not correlate with the initial severity of COVID-19. We hypothesize that impaired microcirculation or limited peripheral O₂ utilization might be causative for prolonged deterioration of EC following acute COVID-19 infection.