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We subclassified the patients after COVID-19 into 3 groups based on the severity of the disease and then performed standard ophthalmic examination, optical coherence tomography (OCT), macular OCT angiography (OCT-A) and retinal oximetry (RO). A total of 32 patients (21 men and 11 women; mean age of 51\u00a0years) were included in the study. Group 1 (mild COVID-19 course) included 11 patients, group 2 (moderate course) included 8 patients, and group 3 (severe course) included 13 patients which is particularly noteworthy. The median time after COVID-19 recovery was 22\u00a0months. No statistically significant difference between the groups was detected in any of the parameters of interest, suggesting resilience of retinal vasculature post-COVID-19. Patients after full recovery from severe COVID-19 do not show any significant decrease in oxygen saturation of retinal vessels 1.5\u00a0years (median) after the episode. Our data show that even a severe course of COVID-19 with ECMO or MV does not cause chronic microvascular changes in the retina.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-025-21794-w","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,29]],"date-time":"2025-10-29T15:51:37Z","timestamp":1761753097000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Long-term retinal oximetry and OCT angiography in patients recovered from COVID-19"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Zuzana","family":"Schreiberov\u00e1","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Samuel","family":"Genzor","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tom\u00e1\u0161","family":"Mudroch","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Barbora","family":"\u0160indel\u00e1\u0159ov\u00e1","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Petra","family":"H\u00fcbnerov\u00e1","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Miroslava","family":"Malu\u0161kov\u00e1","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kl\u00e1ra","family":"Mare\u0161ov\u00e1","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Martin","family":"\u0160\u00edn","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marta","family":"Karhanov\u00e1","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"21794_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"401","DOI":"10.1002\/jmv.25678","volume":"92","author":"H Lu","year":"2020","unstructured":"Lu, H., Stratton, C. 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