The 6th Congress of Exercise and Sport Sciences

Recovered Covid-19 Patients: The Hidden and the Visible

Merav Zucker Toledano
Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel

COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a major public health challenge at this point in time. Severe COVID-19 illness affects the heart during acute infection through myocardial injury, myocarditis, conduction delay and arrhythmias. Cardiac involvement can also be subclinical. Post- COVID-19 inflammatory syndrome in children is also characterized by cardiac involvement. Some of the symptoms after recovery from acute COVID-19 infection or post-COVID-19 syndrome are chest pain, palpitations, weakness, myalgia and dyspnea. Several "return to play" guidelines exist for athletes, adults and children, due to concerns about long-term cardiorespiratory complications.

We evaluated adolescents and adults, athletes and non-athletes, who suffered from post-COVID-19 infection symptoms, using lung function tests, echocardiography, 6-min walk test and CPET in order to identify a long-term cardiac or pulmonary residual limitation which explains the symptoms or indicates long-term cardiopulmonary sequela of COVID-19 infection.

Merav Zucker Toledano
Merav Zucker Toledano
Rambam medical health center
Pediatric Cardiologist Sports Physician








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