Abstract:

Objectives: Atypical chest pain, fatigue, and palpitations can be seen in post-coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) period. With the hypothesis of explaining these complaints, we evaluated the exercise stress test (EST) parameters in COVID-19 patients with mild disease. Materials and Methods: Between the ages of 30-50 years, who had mild COVID-19 in the last 3-9 months, were taken as the COVID-19 group [n=80, male/female (M/F): 40/40]. A total of 160 patients were included, of which age and gender matched 80 patients (M/F: 40/40) without COVID-19 were the control group. During the EST, baseline heart rate HR1(beats/min), baseline systolic, diastolic blood pressure (mmHg) (SBP1, DBP1), maximum blood pressures (SBPmax, DBPmax), and blood pressure changes (ΔSBP, ΔDBP) were recorded. As EST parameters, Duke score, exercise time (min), ST change (mm), exercise capacity (METs), maximum reached HR (% beats/min), distance walked (m), maximum oxygen consumption amount (VO2max mL/kg/min), rate pressure product (RPP mmHg/min/1000), and heart HR recovery 1 (HRR1 beats/min) was used. Results: In the COVID-19 group, baseline HR1, SBP1, DBP1, SBPmax, DBPmax, ΔSBP, ΔDBP, VO2max, and RPP were higher, while distance walked and HRR1 were less. There was no difference between the two groups in terms of Duke score, exercise duration, ST change and exercise capacity. Conclusion: The fact that the exercise capacities in the COVID-19 group were similar to those in the control group, but there was a difference in the changes in heart rate and blood pressure, RPP, HRR1 suggested that the autonomic system might be affected.

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