Abstract
Introduction: COVID-19 is associated with a marked systemic inflammatory response with concomitant cardiac injury and remodelling, but it is currently unknown whether the latter is reversible. Given that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a powerful stimulus to improve cardiorespiratory fitness while also eliciting marked anti-inflammatory effects, it may be an important countermeasure of reducing cardiopulmonary morbidity following COVID-19.
Methods and analysis: 40 COVID-19 survivors who have been discharged from hospital will be included in this investigator-blinded randomised study with a 12-week HIIT intervention. Patients will be 1:1 block-randomised by sex to either a supervised HIIT exercise group or standard care (control group). The main hypothesis is that a 12-week HIIT scheme is a safe way to improve loss of cardiac mass and associated cardiorespiratory fitness, despite hypothesised limited HIIT-induced changes in conventional lung function indices per se. Ultimately, we hypothesise that the HIIT scheme will reduce post-COVID-19 symptoms and improve quality of life.
Ethics and dissemination: This study is approved by the Scientific Ethical Committee at the Capital Region of Denmark (H-20033733, including amendments 75068 and 75799) and registered at ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT04647734 , pre-results). The findings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, including cases of positive, negative and inconclusive results. Trial registration number NCT04549337 .
Keywords: COVID-19; cardiology; sports medicine.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Cardiology, Sports Medicine, 【초록키워드】 Anti-inflammatory effects, Cardiology, randomised, hospital, Ethics, Cardiopulmonary, Sex, Intervention, Symptom, cardiac injury, Region, cardiorespiratory fitness, Lung function, morbidity, Quality of life, Denmark, Hypothesis, Injury, Safe, life, registration number, Capital Region, interval training, Sports Medicine, Capital, control group, standard care, systemic inflammatory response, Trial Registration Number, Registered, positive, survivor, cardiorespiratory, Inconclusive, Committee, cardiac mass, IMPROVE, approved, changes in, reducing, reduce, discharged, peer-reviewed, 1:1, hypothesise, hypothesised, 【제목키워드】 randomised controlled trial, protocol, Statistical analysis plan,