A small randomized trial has discovered that hyperbaric oxygen remedy (HBOT) could assist restore correct coronary heart operate in sufferers with post-COVID syndrome.
A small trial has discovered that hyperbaric oxygen remedy (HBOT) could assist restore correct coronary heart operate in sufferers with post-COVID syndrome, with members within the HBOT group experiencing a major improve in world longitudinal pressure (GLS), an indicator of coronary heart operate.
A small randomized trial in sufferers with post-COVID syndrome has discovered that hyperbaric oxygen remedy promotes the restoration of the guts’s skill to contract correctly. The analysis is offered at EACVI 2023, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).[1]
“The research means that hyperbaric oxygen remedy will be helpful in sufferers with lengthy COVID,” stated research creator Professor Marina Leitman of the Sackler College of Medication, Tel Aviv College and Shamir Medical Centre, Be’er Ya’akov, Israel. “We used a delicate measure of cardiac operate which isn’t routinely carried out in all facilities. Extra research are wanted to find out which sufferers will profit probably the most, however it might be that every one lengthy COVID sufferers ought to have an evaluation of worldwide longitudinal pressure and be supplied hyperbaric oxygen remedy if coronary heart operate is diminished.”
Most COVID-19 victims absolutely recuperate, however after the preliminary sickness roughly 10–20% of sufferers develop lengthy COVID, additionally known as post-COVID situation or syndrome.[2] Signs embrace shortness of breath, fatigue, cough, chest ache, fast or irregular heartbeats, physique aches, rashes, lack of style or scent, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, dizziness, insomnia, mind fog, melancholy and anxiousness. Sufferers with post-COVID syndrome might also develop cardiac dysfunction and are at elevated threat of a spread of cardiovascular issues.[3]
This randomized managed double-blind trial evaluated the impact of hyperbaric oxygen remedy (HBOT) on the cardiac operate of lengthy COVID sufferers. HBOT includes inhalation of 100% pure oxygen at excessive strain to extend supply to the physique’s tissues, which is especially helpful for tissues which are starved of oxygen on account of harm or irritation. HBOT is a longtime therapy for non-healing wounds, decompression illness in divers, carbon monoxide poisoning, radiation harm, and sure kinds of infections
The research enrolled 60 post-COVID syndrome sufferers with ongoing signs for not less than three months after having delicate to average symptomatic COVID-19 confirmed by a PCR check. Each hospitalized and non-hospitalized sufferers had been included. Extreme COVID circumstances had been excluded. Sufferers had been randomized to HBOT or a sham process in a 1:1 ratio. Every affected person had 5 periods per week over eight weeks, for a complete of 40 periods. The HBOT group acquired 100% oxygen via a masks at a strain of two atmospheres for 90 minutes, with 5 minute air breaks each 20 minutes. The sham group breathed 21% oxygen by masks at 1 environment for 90 minutes. All members underwent echocardiography at baseline (earlier than the primary session) and 1 to three weeks after the final session.
Echocardiography was used to evaluate left ventricular world longitudinal pressure (GLS), which is a measure of the guts’s skill to contract and loosen up lengthwise. It signifies how properly the guts is functioning and can assist detect early indicators of coronary heart illness. A wholesome coronary heart can have a GLS worth of round -20% which implies that the guts muscle is ready to correctly contract and loosen up within the longitudinal path. Diminished GLS is an early marker that the guts just isn’t capable of contract and loosen up successfully.
At baseline, practically half of research members (29 out of 60; 48%) had diminished GLS. Of these, 13 (43%) and 16 (53%) had been within the sham and HBOT teams, respectively. The common GLS at baseline throughout all members was -17.8%. Within the HBOT group, GLS considerably elevated from -17.8% at baseline to -20.2% after the intervention (p=0.0001). Within the sham group, GLS was -17.8% at baseline and -19.1% after the periods, with no statistically important distinction between the 2 measurements.
Professor Leitman stated: “It was notable that nearly half of lengthy COVID sufferers had impaired cardiac operate at baseline in line with GLS regardless of all members having a standard ejection fraction, which is the usual methodology for measuring the guts’s skill to contract. Which means that ejection fraction just isn’t delicate sufficient to determine lengthy COVID sufferers with diminished coronary heart operate.”
She concluded: “The findings recommend that HBOT promotes restoration of cardiac operate in sufferers with post-COVID syndrome. Extra analysis is required to gather long-term outcomes and decide the optimum variety of periods for optimum therapeutic impact.”
Assembly: EACVI 2023
Notes
- The summary ‘The impact of hyperbaric oxygen remedy on myocardial operate in post-COVID syndrome sufferers: a randomized managed trial’ was offered throughout the session ‘COVID’ at Moderated ePosters 1.
- World Well being Group: Coronavirus illness (COVID-19): Put up COVID-19 situation.
- “Lengthy-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19” by Yan Xie, Evan Xu, Benjamin Bowe and Ziyad Al-Aly, 7 February 2022, Nature Medication.
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-022-01689-3