investigation of spirometry indicators in children aged 6 to 14 years recovered from covid-19

Background: the purpose of this study was to investigate spirometry indicators in children aged 6 to 14 years who had recovered from covid-19 in akbar hospital, mashhad, iran. methods: this is a cross-sectional study conducted on 50 (25 pcr-positive and 25 pcr-negative) children who were admitted to akbar hospital with the diagnosis of covid-19 from march 2021 to march 2023. the diagnosis was confirmed by pcr test and ct scan, and the patients underwent spirometry twice in two time periods (the first 3 months after recovery and the second 3 months after recovery). the collected data were then analyzed using spss software ver. 21. results: the mean age of children in the pcr-negative and pcr-positive groups was 7.88 ± 1.53 and 10.12 ± 2.52 years, respectively (p = 0.01). the mean fef25.75 was significantly higher in the pcr-negative group (p = 0.01), whereas crp was significantly higher in the pcr-positive group (p = 0.01). in the pcr-positive group, the patients underwent spirometry again in the second 3 months after recovery from covid-19, and the results showed that the mean forced expiratory volume (fev) 1 (p = 0.01), forced vital capacity (fvc) (p = 0.01), and fev1/fvc ratio (p = 0.01) of the patients in the second 3 months after recovery from covid-19 was significantly reduced compared to the first 3 months after recovery. ct scans of the patients also showed that ground-glass opacities (ggo) consolidation (p = 0.01) and pleural thickening (p = 0.02) were significantly higher in the pcr-positive group. conclusions: according to the conclusive findings of this study, the inflammatory response triggered by covid-19 could persist in certain children, potentially impacting the peripheral airways as a result.