Exercise Interventions in Post-acute Sequelae of Covid-19

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the medical system both directly but also through incomplete recovery from the virus in the form of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). PASC affects at least 9.6 million individuals as of May 2022 and continues to affect many more. PASC is a multisystem disorder often presenting with mental fog, dyspnea on exertion, and fatigue among other symptoms. The etiology of PASC is uncertain but theories include direct cytotoxicity, dysregulated immune responses, endotheliitis associated with microthrombi, eNOS uncoupling, and myocardial fibrosis with impaired ventricular compliance. To date, there are no established treatments. Exercise has the potential as a therapeutic option to improve VO2peak and improve each of the aforementioned underlying etiologies. The investigators plan to examine the effect of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and Moderate intensity exercise training (MOD) on the symptoms and exercise tolerance of patients with PASC.

The investigators approach will consist of a randomized, blinded, 2-arm, parallel-group design. Enrolled subjects will be randomly assigned to one of two groups in a 1:1 allocation ratio. All groups will undergo a 4-week intervention of 3 days of HIIT per week and 2 days of MOD per week or control of light stretching and controlled breathing. Subjects will be assessed before and after the 4-week intervention to examine the extent to which 4 weeks of the HIIT and MOD combination improves VO2peak and left ventricular diastolic function, global longitudinal strain (GLS), and global circumferential strain (GCS). Further, the investigators will explore changes in markers such as heart rate, heart rhythm, blood pressure, quality of life, exercise tolerance, and PASC symptoms as well as blood/serum markers.

Conditions

• COVID-19

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Exercise

Patients will perform 5 days of supervised stationary cycling exercise (with EKG telemetry) per week over a period of 4 weeks. Training heart rates will be determined based on the pre-testing VO2peak and peak heart rate (PHR). * Of the 5 sessions, 3 will be HIIT sessions and 2 will be MOD sessions. * Subjects exercising on the HIIT day will start with eight intervals of 2-min duration at 80-85% of PHR, separated by 2 min of recovery at 50% of PHR, progressing to four, 4-min intervals at 90-95% PHR, separated by 3 min at 50% PHR by the end of week 2. * Subjects exercising on the MOD days will perform uninterrupted for 40 minutes duration at 60-65% of PHR progressing to 40 minutes duration at 70-75% of PHR by the end of week 2. * Each training session will begin with a 10-min warm-up at 50% PHR and end with a 5-min cool down at 50% PHR. Exercise progression may have to be modified according to individual subject exercise tolerance.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Virginia

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Siddhartha S Angadi, PhD · University of Virginia

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

50 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-09-09

Primary Completion

2024-03-29

Completion

2024-03-29

Countries

• United States

Study Locations