Associations between the Severity of the Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome and Echocardiographic Abnormalities in Previously Healthy Outpatients Following Infection with SARS-CoV-2

• Published in: Biology (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2021-05, Vol.10 (6), p.469
• Main Authors: Tudoran, Cristina, Tudoran, Mariana, Pop, Gheorghe Nicusor, Giurgi-Oncu, Catalina, Cut, Talida Georgiana, Lazureanu, Voichita Elena, Oancea, Cristian, Parv, Florina, Ciocarlie, Tudor, Bende, Felix
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: cardiovascular abnormalities; Cardiovascular diseases; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Echocardiography; Electrocardiography; Epidemics; Heart; Hypertension; Infections; Laboratories; Lungs; Pain; Pandemics; Pathology; Patients; Pericarditis; post-acute COVID-19 syndrome; Quality of life; Questionnaires; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Statistical analysis; transthoracic echocardiography; Velocity; Ventricle
• ISSN: 2079-7737; 2079-7737
• DOI: 10.3390/biology10060469

The COVID-19 pandemic affected over 130 million individuals during more than one year. Due to the overload of health-care services, a great number of people were treated as outpatients, many of them subsequently developing post-acute COVID-19 syndrome. Our study was conducted on 150 subjects without a history of cardiovascular diseases, treated as outpatients for a mild/moderate form of COVID-19 4 to 12 weeks prior to study inclusion, and who were diagnosed with post-acute COVID-19 and attended a cardiology evaluation with transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) for persisting symptoms. We detected various cardiac abnormalities in 38 subjects (25.33%), including pulmonary hypertension (9.33%), impaired left ventricular performance (8.66%), diastolic dysfunction (14%) and/or evidence of pericarditis (10%). We highlighted statistically significant correlations between the intensity of symptoms and quality of life scores with the severity of initial pulmonary injury, the number of weeks since COVID-19 and with TTE parameters characterizing the systolic and diastolic performance and pulmonary hypertension (p < 0.001). (Post-acute COVID-19 is a complex syndrome characterized by various symptoms, the intensity of which seem to be related to the severity and the time elapsed since the acute infection, and with persisting cardiac abnormalities.