{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]],"date-time":"2026-01-21T14:49:21Z","timestamp":1769006961406,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,21]],"date-time":"2024-08-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1724198400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background and Objectives: The term long COVID refers to patients with a history of confirmed COVID-19 infection, who present symptoms that last for at least 2 months and cannot be explained by another diagnosis. Objectives: The present study aims to determine the most common symptoms of the long COVID syndrome and their impact on the quality of life. Materials and Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted on patients diagnosed with mild and moderate COVID-19 (based on a positive SARS-CoV-2 molecular diagnostic or rapid antigen test and severity form definition) at the Clinical Hospital of Infectious Diseases, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Clinical examinations with detailed questions about symptoms were performed at the time of the diagnosis of COVID-19 and the six-month follow-up. Two years after COVID-19 infection, patients were invited to complete an online quality-of-life questionnaire regarding long COVID symptoms. Results: A total of 103 patients (35.92% males) with a mean age of 41.56 \u00b1 11.77 were included in this study. Of the total number of patients, 65.04% presented mild forms of COVID-19. Data regarding the vaccination status showed that 83.5% were vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. The most common symptoms at diagnosis were cough (80.6%), fatigue (80.4%), odynophagia (76.7%), and headaches (67.6%), with female patients being statistically more likely to experience it (p = 0.014). Patients with moderate forms of the disease had higher levels of both systolic (p = 0.008) and diastolic (p = 0.037) blood pressure at diagnosis, but no statistical difference was observed in the 6-month follow-up. The most common symptoms at 2 years (in 29 respondent subjects) were represented by asthenia (51.7%), headache (34.5%), memory disorders (27.6%), abdominal meteorism (27.6%), and arthralgia (27.6%). In terms of cardiovascular symptoms, fluctuating blood pressure values (20.7%), palpitations (17.2%), and increased heart rate values (17.2%) were recorded. Conclusions: If at the time of diagnosis, the most frequent manifestations of the disease were respiratory, together with headache and fatigue, at re-evaluation, asthenia, decreased effort tolerance, and neuropsychiatric symptoms prevailed. Regarding the cardiovascular changes as part of the long COVID clinical picture, some patients developed prehypertension, palpitations, and tachycardia.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina60081359","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,22]],"date-time":"2024-08-22T03:07:38Z","timestamp":1724296058000},"page":"1359","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["The Impact of Long COVID on the Quality of Life"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"60","author":[{"given":"Angela","family":"Cozma","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8590-4583","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Adela-Viviana","family":"Sitar-T\u0103ut","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Olga Hilda","family":"Or\u0103\u0219an","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4218-8622","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel Corneliu","family":"Leucu\u021ba","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, \u201cIuliu Ha\u0163ieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-3989-8574","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tinca-Codru\u021ba","family":"Pocol","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Octavia","family":"S\u0103l\u0103gean","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-9065-1745","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Camil","family":"Cri\u0219an","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5584-564X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nicolae-Dan","family":"Spori\u0219","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Oncology, Prof. Dr. I. Chiricu\u021ba Oncology Institute, 400015 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8428-8088","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrada-Luciana","family":"Lazar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dermatology, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Toma-Vlad","family":"M\u0103linescu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Andreea-Maria","family":"Ganea","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"C\u0103lin Vasile","family":"Vlad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Melinda","family":"Horvat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400348 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4010-2901","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mihaela Sorina","family":"Lup\u0219e","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400348 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Violeta","family":"Briciu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology, \u201cIuliu Ha\u021bieganu\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 400348 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"28787","DOI":"10.1002\/jmv.28787","article-title":"Artificial neural network-based prediction of the lung tissue involvement as an independent in-hospital mortality and mechanical ventilation risk factor in COVID-19","volume":"95","author":"Parczewski","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. 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