Table 2.

Main characteristics describing a cohort of 55 clinically PACS patients who presented themselves in a family practice in Belgium, during 2021–2022. The characteristics of two groups; group 1: cured mild and severe long COVID versus group 2: still ill very severe long COVID, (see Table 1) were compared to each other using the appropriate statistical tests. Ordering of first SPECT-CT, gravity indicator (DUSOI) and functional status indicator (COOP) which are all clinical considerations seem to have significant relationships with the severity of the outcome. Second SPECT-CT is ordered only to still sick patients. Months after acute COVID are calculated at the last patient assessment, i.e., the month before the submitted data collection. Both show a relationship with the outcome, as expected.

		Outcome
		Recovered Mild and Severe		Still ill Very Severe
		n	%	n	%	Test	p
Sex	Female	22	55	18	45	1.528 #	0.216
	Male	11	73.3	4	26.7
Number of COVID episodes	1	28	63.6	16	36.4	3.918 *	0.117
	2 or 3	4	44.4	5	55.6
# of vaccines	0	6	85.7	1	14.3	4.292 *	0.202
	1	0	0	1	100
	2	12	66.7	6	33.3
	3	15	51.7	14	48.3
Vaccine reaction	Yes	18	50	18	50	4.238 *	0.121
	No	9	75	3	25
	Not vaccinated	6	85.7	1	14.3
Vaccine reaction type	Local	4	66.7	2	33.3	0.800 *	0.658
	Systemic	14	46.7	16	53.3
First SPECT	No	19	86.4	3	13.6	10.617 #	0.001
	Yes	13	41.9	18	58.1
First SPECT status	Yes	13	43.3	17	56.7	0.034 *	1.000
	No	1	50.0	1	50.0
Second SPECT	No	28	73.7	10	26.3	12.766 #	<0.001
	Yes	3	20.0	12	80.0
Second SPECT status	Improved	3	37.5	5	62.5	3.281 *	0.123
	Worsened	0	0	7	100
PCR test in the first episode of COVID	No	15	65.2	8	34.8	0.448 #	0.503
	Yes	18	56.3	14	43.8
DUSOI	2	6	100	0	0	13.847 *	0.001
	3	18	78.3	5	21.7
	4	9	34.6	17	65.4
		Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Age (years)		42.9	15.6	42.0	12.9	0.222 ##	0.825
COOP Total score		20.8	3.7	23.4	2.3	2.758 ##	0.008
Months after acute COVID		13.3	8.9	18.3	5.9	2.347 **	0.019

# Chi-square test, * Fisher’s exact test, ** Mann-Whitney U test, ## Independent samples t-test.