Table 1.
Clinical characteristics.
| Acute COVID-19 disease course | |
| Age (years) | 43.4 (11.9), range 18–69 |
| Sex | 39 f, 8 m |
| Hospitalisation | 13% (6/47) |
| Intensive care unit (ICU) | 4% (2/47) |
| Oxygen supplementation | 17% (8/47) |
| Ventilation | 9% (4/47) |
| COVID-19 disease duration (days)a | median 21 (IQR 21–28) |
| COVID-19 symptom countb | median 3 (IQR 2–4) |
| Acute COVID-19 symptomsb | |
| Headache | 47% (22/47) |
| Hyposmia/hypogeusia | 45% (21/47) |
| Limb pain | 30% (14/47) |
| Fever | 26% (12/47) |
| Dyspnoea | 21% (10/47) |
| Cough | 17% (8/47) |
| Thoracic pain | 17% (8/47) |
| Abdominal pain | 6% (3/47) |
| Sore throat | 15% (7/47) |
| Shivering | 13% (6/47) |
| Rhinitis | 11% (5/47) |
| Diarrhoea | 4% (2/47) |
| Post-COVID syndromee | ||
| Post-COVID disease duration (months) | median 7.5 (IQR 6.5–9.2) | |
| Post-COVID mRS | median 2 (IQR 2–2.5) | |
| ME-CFS criteria (% of patients)c | 29% (12/41) | controls: 0% (0/47) |
| Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) | 14.6 (7.5) | controls: 3.9 (4.8) |
| Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) | 17.0 (7.8) | controls: 4.8 (5.4) |
| Bell score | 48.5 (16.7) | controls: 97.0 (6.3) |
| Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) | 11.2 (5.6) | controls: 5.5 (3.2) |
| Fatigue Scale for Motor & Cognitive Function (FSMC) | 77.0 (10.1) | controls: 33.2 (11.1) |
| Physical fatigue | 38.2 (5.6) | controls: 16.9 (5.6) |
| Cognitive fatigue | 38.9 (6.1) | controls: 16.3 (6.0) |
| Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) | 55.0 (8.7) | controls: 23.1 (10.4) |
| Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) | 8.2 (3.9) | controls: 5.8 (4.1) |
| Post-COVID neurological symptomsd | |
| Headache | 47% (22/47) |
| Hyposmia/hypogeusia | 45% (21/47) |
| Myalgia | 21% (10/47) |
| Dizziness | 11% (5/47) |
| Vertigo | 11% (5/47) |
| Muscle weakness | 9% (4/47) |
| Sensibility dysfunction | 4% (2/47) |
| Autonomic dysfunction | 2% (1/47) |
| Cerebellar symptoms | 2% (1/47) |
| Movement disorder | 2% (1/47) |
| Extrapyramidal symptoms | 2% (1/47) |
| Oculomotor symptoms | 2% (1/47) |
| Gait | 2% (1/47) |
| Aphasia | 2% (1/47) |
| Apraxia | 0% (0/47) |
| Dysarthria/dysphagia | 0% (0/47) |
| Brain stem symptoms | 0% (0/47) |
| Cerebrovascular incidents | 0% (0/47) |
| Impaired consciousness | 0% (0/47) |
| Paresis | 0% (0/47) |
| Pyramidal tract dysfunction | 0% (0/47) |
| Seizures | 0% (0/47) |
a
Post-COVID syndrome disease duration is defined as the time between the onset of COVID-19 and study assessment.
b
Self-reported.
c
International consensus criteria for myalgic encephalomyelitis. We limited the 6-months criterion to 3 months due to the novelty of COVID-19 and the recent enrolment of participants.
d
Physician-assessed based on medical history and neurological examination (IQR: interquartile range (first and third quartiles), ME-CFS: myalgic encephalomyelitis – chronic fatigue syndrome, mRS: modified Rankin Score.
e
Quantitative values are reported with mean (SD) unless otherwise indicated.