(American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine)
Rationale. Shared symptoms and genetic architecture between COVID-19 and lung
fibrosis suggests SARS-CoV-2 infection may lead to progressive lung damage.
Objectives. The UKILD Post-COVID study interim analysis was planned to estimate the
prevalence of residual lung abnormalities in people hospitalized with COVID-19 based on
risk strata.
Methods. The Post-HOSPitalisation COVID Study (PHOSP-COVID) was used for capture
of routine and research follow-up within 240 days from discharge. Thoracic CTs linked by
PHOSP-COVID identifiers were scored for percentage of residual lung abnormalities
(ground glass opacities and reticulations). Risk factors in linked CT were estimated with
Bayesian binomial regression and risk strata were generated. Numbers within strata were
used to estimate post-hospitalization prevalence using Bayesian binomial distributions.
Sensitivity analysis was restricted to participants with protocol driven research follow-up