Bone Mineral Density and Body Composition Characteristics of Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 after One-year Follow-up

• Published in: CT Li lun yu ying yong yan jiu Vol. 32; no. 3; pp. 411 - 418
• Main Authors: Wenmin GUAN, Xuan WEI, Jing SUN, Wei WEI, Tingting ZHANG, Ying YAN, Lijun SONG, Husheng QIAN, Daning WANG, Guanghong LIU, Meiqin QIAO, Lu REN, Zhenghan YANG, Yan XU, Zhenchang WANG
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editorial Office of Computerized Tomography Theory and Application 01.05.2023
• Subjects: body composition; bone mineral density; coronavirus disease 2019; multimodal image; quantitative ct
• ISSN: 1004-4140
• DOI: 10.15953/j.ctta.2023.052

Although coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) primarily affects the respiratory system, this disease can affect multiple systems, including the musculoskeletal system. However, studies regarding the effect of COVID-19 on musculoskeletal system are limited. This study analyzed the bone mineral density (BMD) and body composition of 33 patients with COVID-19 using their chest CT scans at admission, discharge, and one-year follow-up. Among the patients, 2 were asymptomatic, 8 had mild symptoms, 19 had ordinary symptoms, and 4 had severe symptoms, and no critical patients were included. The mean length of hospital stay was (29.5±9.6) days, and the mean duration to follow-up was (423.0±53.6) days. The study found no significant changes in BMD of segmental or total thoracic vertebrae at admission, discharge, and one-year follow-up. No significant changes were observed in the subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) area, visceral adipose tissue (VAT) area, and total adipose tissue (TAT) of the mid-slice of the T12~L1 intervertebral disc. However, the asymptomatic and mild group had a higher average BMD of the T1~T12 than that of the common and severe group at admission and one-year follow-up. The common and severe group had higher VAT and TAT area than those of the asymptomatic and mild group at admission and one-year follow-up. This study provides valuable insights into the effects of COVID-19 on the musculoskeletal system and suggests that COVID-19 does not significantly affect thoracic BMD and abdominal adipose tissue after one year of infection.