Protracted breathlessness in the wake of a COVID-19 infection is the consequence not of one disease process but many. COVID-19 pneumonia can severely damage lung architecture, with resultant long-term reductions in respiratory function, gas exchange and exercise capacity: a pattern of injury few respiratory physicians would fail to recognise. A more diagnostically challenging presentation can be that of the patient with a prior mild COVID-19 infection who lacks evident structural cardiopulmonary disease, who nevertheless suffers from marked, even debilitating, dyspnoea. Dysfunctional breathing (DB) has emerged as one important, and likely underrecognised, driver of dyspnoea among those with long COVID [1–3].

感染 COVID-19 后出现的长期呼吸困难不是一种疾病过程的结果，而是多种疾病过程的结果。 COVID-19 肺炎会严重损害肺结构，导致呼吸功能、气体交换和运动能力长期下降：很少有呼吸科医生无法认识到这种损伤模式。诊断上更具挑战性的表现可能是既往患有轻度 COVID-19 感染的患者，虽然没有明显的结构性心肺疾病，但仍患有明显的、甚至使人衰弱的呼吸困难。呼吸功能障碍 (DB) 已成为长期新冠肺炎患者呼吸困难的重要驱动因素之一，但可能未被充分认识[1-3]。