Persistent Fatigue, Weakness, and Aberrant Muscle Mitochondria in Survivors of Critical COVID-19, 2024, Kirby P Mayer et al

KEY POINTS
Question: Determine the short- and long-term physical impairments and skeletal muscle cellular changes in survivors of critical COVID.

Findings: Survivors of critical COVID have high prevalence of weakness, fatigue, and reduced functional exercise capacity with muscle tissue exhibiting a greater abundance of M2-like macrophages and satellite cells and lower activity of mitochondrial complex II and complex IV.

Meanings: Perturbed muscle recovery associates with fatigue and poor physical function months after ICU admission for COVID-19. Critical care and post-hospital clinicians should be aware of the potential long-term muscle deficits in COVID survivors, but more work is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying these histochemical findings and their relationship to long COVID.

Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
Persistent skeletal muscle dysfunction in survivors of critical illness due to acute respiratory failure is common, but biological data elucidating underlying mechanisms are limited. The objective of this study was to elucidate the prevalence of skeletal muscle weakness and fatigue in survivors of critical illness due to COVID-19 and determine if cellular changes associate with persistent skeletal muscle dysfunction.

DESIGN:
A prospective observational study in two phases: 1) survivors of critical COVID-19 participating in physical outcome measures while attending an ICU Recovery Clinic at short-term follow-up and 2) a nested cohort of patients performed comprehensive muscle and physical function assessments with a muscle biopsy; data were compared with non-COVID controls.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:
One hundred twenty patients with a median of 56 years old (interquartile range [IQR], 42–65 yr old), 43% female, and 33% individuals of underrepresented race attended follow-up 44 ± 17 days after discharge. Patients had a median Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation-II score of 24.0 (IQR, 16–29) and 98 patients (82%) required mechanical ventilation with a median duration of 14 days (IQR, 9–21 d). At short-term follow-up significant physical dysfunction was observed with 93% of patients reporting generalized fatigue and performing mean 218 ± 151 meters on 6-minute walk test (45% ± 30% of predicted). Eleven patients from this group agreed to participate in long-term assessment and muscle biopsy occurring a mean 267 ± 98 days after discharge. Muscle tissue from COVID exhibited a greater abundance of M2-like macrophages and satellite cells and lower activity of mitochondrial complex II and complex IV compared with controls.

CONCLUSIONS:
Our findings suggest that aberrant repair and altered mitochondrial activity in skeletal muscle associates with long-term impairments in patients surviving an ICU admission for COVID-19.
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