Late, Post-COVID Cardiac Dysfunction Linked to Preexisting CAD
The study covered in this summary was published on ResearchSquare.com as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed.
Key Takeaways
Patients with recent COVID-19 infection and cardiovascular (CV) comorbidities can show significantly reduced echocardiographic left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) values 3 months after the acute infection compared with patients with CV comorbidities and risk factors but no history of COVID-19.
A history of coronary artery disease (CAD), in particular, at admission with COVID-19 may predict long-term risk for myocardial dysfunction.
Why This Matters
The findings suggest that patients with CV comorbidities or risk factors who are hospitalized with COVID-19 are at increased long-term risk for cardiac functional abnormalities and may benefit from follow-up using echocardiographic GLS imaging.
Study Design
The cross-sectional study assessed LV GLS measurements by echocardiography 3 months after hospital admissions with COVID-19 in adults with CV comorbidities and risk factors from June to August 2021 at one center in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The population consisted of 100 case patients with preexisting cardiac comorbidities and risk factors recovered from a COVID-19 hospitalization (cases), 31 patients with cardiac comorbidities and no prior COVID-19 (control group 1), and 31 “healthy” subjects without cardiac comorbidities or a history of COVID-19 (control group 2).
Relationships between parameters at admission and later LV GLS values were assessed in multivariate analyses.
Key Results
The 162 participants averaged age 52 years and 62% were male.
Cases and control-group 1 participants were not significantly different with respect to prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoking, CAD, or obesity.
Means LV GLS values were significantly lower (P < .05) for patients in the case group (-16.17) compared with control groups 1 and 2 (-19.48 and -21.48, respectively).
Of parameters evaluated during the index hospitalization, only a presence of CAD was a significant multivariate predictor (P = .038) of decreased LV GLS in cases compared with the control groups.
COVID-19 had no apparent effect on right ventricular free-wall strain at 3 months regardless of CV comorbidities and risk factors.
Limitations
The study had a limited sample size and was from a single center, limiting generalizability.
Data on LV GLS prior to COVID-19 infection was not available.
Some data on relevant admission parameters, such as C-reactive protein, d-dimer, natriuretic peptides, and troponins were missing.
Disclosures
The study received no funding, grants, or other special support.
The authors declare no relevant financial or nonfinancial conflicts.
This is a summary of a preprint research study, “ Persistent Myocardial Dysfunction Assessed by Global Myocardial Strain in Covid-19 Recovered Patients with Cardiovascular Comorbidities at 3 Months After Acute Infection,” written by Ines Vidal Tanto from the Harapan Kita National Cardiovascular Center in Indonesia and colleagues on ResearchSquare.com, provided to you by Medscape. This study has not yet been peer reviewed. The full text of the study can be found on ResearchSquare.com.
For more news, follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn
Source: Read Full Article