Procedures
upper extremity peripheral veins, dyspnea
RECRUITMENT
The process of enrollment, recruitment and the baseline assessment were performed in a same day. Medical history and demographic data were collected from participants after recruitment. Patients underwent clinical evaluation at baseline, including VBG analysis, 3MWT, Spo2, and level of dyspnea. In order to VBG analysis, blood samples were taken from the upper extremity peripheral veins after two-minutes of breathing free air in fowler’s position by a nurse. Samples were immediately analyzed [The interventions were delivered over three days. The number of days and sessions for applying the intervention was determined after analyzing the mean of staying duration at intermediate care wards, where patients with severe COVID-19 were admitted. Based on the result of primary analysis, 78% of patients had admitted to intermediate care wards stayed for 3–4 days and they were then transferred to other care wards (normal care wards or intensive care units).Patients underwent a second assessment time at the end of day three (after the sixth session). Participants were also followed up to one month and three months to evaluate their survival rate (using electronic medical records) and HRQOL using telephone assessment of short form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire.