Respiratory Muscle Strength Performance in Assessment of COVID-19 Patients Following Infection

Background: The respiratory muscle performance can be an important factor from the perspective of COVID 19 infection. It is a factor which is not appreciated much for contributing to poor outcomes during the corona virus pandemic. The primary aim of this study is to discuss the potential role of respiratory muscle performance followed by corona virus infection.

Aim: In this paper, we have tried to use the outcome of our study on chronic lung disease on the respiratory muscle strength of COVID 19 patients following infection.

Methods: This work was done at a Premier Medical Institute of Mumbai. After proper diagnosis from the Chest Physician and labelled as COPD patient, the Maximal Inspiratory Pressure (MIP) measurements, which is an index of respiratory muscle strength, was conducted.

Results: The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant difference for maximal inspiratory pressure (p=0.003) between different stages of COPD. The MIP results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between mild and very severe (p=0.0019) as well as between moderate and very severe (p=0.002). A significant positive correlation among maximal static pressure and FEV1 % (r= 0.5) was also observed. MIP thus is an effective technique to measure reduced performance of respiratory muscle strength.

Conclusion: MIP can be the test of choice to test the impaired respiratory muscle performance following COVID 19 infection. It may be advantageous to screen for respiratory muscle impairment in patients with dyspnea or characteristics associated increased risk of severe respiratory complication due to viral infection. Being non-invasive, simple, and inexpensive; measurement of the MIP in COVID-19 patients especially with high-risks elderly would for sure be noteworthy.

Author(s): Anita Agrawal

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