# Does long COVID in people living with HIV resemble the functional phenotype of non-HIV individuals who had moderate or severe acute COVID-19? A retrospective cross-sectional study

## TL;DR

People with HIV and long COVID have similar exercise capacity to those with mild/moderate acute COVID-19, despite worse lung function.

## Contribution

This study compares long COVID in people with HIV to non-HIV individuals with different acute COVID-19 severities.

## Key findings

- PLWH with long COVID had similar 6MWT results to those with mild/moderate acute COVID-19.
- PLWH with long COVID showed significantly worse spirometry compared to those with severe acute COVID-19.
- BMI and pulmonary function differences were observed across the study groups.

## Abstract

It has been postulated that individuals with long COVID have reduced exercise capacity, just as people living with HIV (PLWH), although having even lower exercise capacity. The extent to which long COVID in PLWH resembles long COVID in individuals who presented different COVID-19 phenotypes is unknown, so we aimed to determine if the long COVID profile in PLWH resembled the symptoms experienced by individuals with long COVID following mild/moderate or severe acute COVID-19, 2 years after the initial disease.

A pulmonary function test and a 6-min walk test (6MWT) were performed on adult individuals with PACS (Post-Acute COVID Syndrome) in 3 groups: COVID-19+PLWH (plwHCOV), mild/moderate COVID-19 (mmCOV); severe COVID-19 (seCOV).

Sixty three individuals were included: plwHCOV (n = 12), mmCOV (n = 33) and seCOV (n = 18). Across all groups, males were predominant. BMI was 25 ± 3, 28 ± 4, and 32 ± 7 kg/m2 in plwHCOV, mmCOV, and seCOV, respectively (p = 0.003). The plwHCOV walked 545 m (±93) at the 6MWT, which was comparable to the mmCOV group (555 m ± 63) but significantly higher than the seCOV group (435 m ± 84) (p < 0.0001). The plwHCOV group had worse forced expiratory volume in 1st second (FEV1%, 80 ± 12) (p < 0.0001), forced vital capacity (FVC%, 83 ± 11) (p = 0.002) and FEV1/FVC (0.80 ± 0.1, p = 0.004) when compared to the seCOV group. Interestingly, PLWH had comparable 6MWT, FEV1, FVC, and FEV1/FVC results as mmCOV.

Our results indicate that even 2 years post-COVID-19 infection, PLWH exhibits significantly decreased spirometry compared to the seCOV group. Despite this lung function impairment, their functional capacity was similar to individuals with PACS following mild/moderate COVID-19.