Functional and Radiological Improvement in a COVID-19 Pneumonia Patient Treated With Steroids

Like its predecessors, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can lead to long-term health-related consequences in a significant segment of the afflicted population. Although the medical community has developed multiple vaccines by now, COVID-19 has affected over 100 million individuals worldwide and will infect millions more before vaccines can be effectively distributed on a global scale. Additionally, it seems probable that another outbreak caused by a coronavirus may occur in the future, given that this is the third outbreak caused by a coronavirus in recent history. In light of this, the medical community must develop reliable methods of curtailing long-term sequelae of coronaviruses, and the use of corticosteroids in affected patients may be vital for this purpose. In this report, we present a case of progressive dyspnea caused by COVID-19 pneumonia; the patient was treated with a short course of oral corticosteroids, and subsequently showed marked improvement of the dyspnea with corresponding improvements on chest CT.