Cardiovascular Involvement and its Relationship with the Severity of the Acute Phase and Persistent Symptoms during Recovery from COVID-19 Infection
Year: 2021
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Background: The acute phase of COVID-19 infection is associated with cardiovascular involvement, but there is limited information regarding this relationship in the recovery phase from this disease both in patients with or without persistent symptoms.Objectives: The aims of this study were: 1.To analyze cardiovascular involvement by echocardiography in the recovery phase from COVID-19 disease, and 2. To explore its association with: a) the severity of the acute phase and b) the presence of persistent symptoms.Methods: An analytical, observational, prospective and single-center study was carried out, including consecutive patients attending the center for post-COVID-19 evaluation who underwent a transthoracic color Doppler echocardiogram looking for pathological outcomes.Results: A total of 600 patients were included from September 1, 2020 to May 1, 2021, and 29 of these patients (4.8%) presented pathological findings in the echocardiogram.Patients with moderate or severe acute phase COVID-19 infection had a higher prevalence of wall motion disorders (4.3% vs. 0.5%, p=0.02) and pericardial effusion (4.3% vs. 0.24%, p=0.01) compared with those with asymptomatic or mild symptoms; however, after multivariate adjustment, this association did not reach statistical significance.In 28.6% of cases, patients reported persistent symptoms, with no evident association between their presence and pathological echocardiographic results.Conclusion: The prevalence of cardiovascular involvement evaluated by echocardiography was 4.8% in the recovery phase from COVID-19 disease.Patients with more severe initial clinical presentation exhibited more pathological findings, but the significance was not sustained in the multivariate analysis.Persistent symptoms were not associated with greater cardiovascular involvement.
Source: Revista Argentina de Cardiología
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W3209750852