Sabari Giri Vasan1 , Deepti Arora2 , Sivaraman A.3 , Piyush Arora4
BACKGROUND We wanted to assess the pulmonary sequelae in patients (without any underlying respiratory disease previously) with swine flu after treatment. METHODS This is a retrospective follow up study conducted in the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, Ajmer, Rajasthan. 50 patients were enrolled in the study who reported to Respiratory Medicine OPD, with a history of swine flu in the past for which they got treated and recovered from the illness but were symptomatic on follow up. They were assessed clinically, and functionally by doing Pulmonary Function Test (PFT - Spirometry and DLCO) and radiologically (by doing HRCT Chest). With the results of these parameters, we assessed the long-term sequelae after swine flu attack. RESULTS Out of the total of 50 patients, 32 were males and 18 were females. The mean age of the study group was 40 years. The most common symptom reported by the patients was dry cough (72%) and breathlessness (60%). PFT showed restrictive pattern in 16 patients (62%), obstructive pattern in 6 patients (23%), and mixed pattern in 4 patients (15%). DLCO was done in patients with abnormal spirometry findings (26 patients); 14 (54%) patients had normal diffusion function and 12 (46%) showed reduced diffusion. 32 (64%) patients had abnormal HRCT pattern. CONCLUSIONS Pulmonary sequelae are more common after swine flu attack. But studies and literatures are lacking in this regard. This study shows that abnormal PFT and abnormal radiological features are seen even after the swine flu attack on follow up. So, our present study shows the importance of the follow up of all symptomatic swine flu patients on long term even after recovery from the illness.
