Journal of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Research (Dec 2021)

Characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized patients with cardiovascular complications of COVID-19

  • Farzad Jalali,
  • Farbod Hatami,
  • Mehrdad Saravi,
  • Iraj Jafaripour,
  • Mohammad Taghi Hedayati,
  • Kamyar Amin,
  • Roghayeh Pourkia,
  • Saeid Abroutan,
  • Mostafa Javanian,
  • Soheil Ebrahimpour,
  • Niloufar Valizadeh,
  • Saeede Khosravi Bizhaem,
  • Naghmeh Ziaie

DOI
https://doi.org/10.34172/jcvtr.2021.53
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 4
pp. 355 – 363

Abstract

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Introduction: To address cardiovascular (CV) complications and their relationship to clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Methods: A total of 196 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 were enrolled in this retrospective single-center cohort study from September 10, 2020, to December 10, 2020, with a median age of 65 years (IQR, 52-77). Follow-up continued for 3 months after hospital discharge. Results: CV complication was observed in 54 (27.6%) patients, with arrhythmia being the most prevalent (14.8%) followed by myocarditis, acute coronary syndromes, ST-elevation myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accident, and deep vein thrombosis in 15 (7.7%), 12 (6.1%), 10(5.1%), 8 (4.1%), and 4 (2%) patients, respectively. The proportion of patients with elevated high-sensitivity troponin I, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction was greater in the CV complication group. Severe forms of COVID-19 comprised nearly two-thirds (64.3%) of our study population and constituted a significantly higher share of the CV complication group members (75.9%vs 59.9%; P=0.036). Intensive care unit admission (64.8% vs 44.4%; P=0.011) and stay (5.5days vs 0 day; P=0.032) were notably higher in patients with CV complications. Among 196patients, 50 died during hospitalization and 10 died after discharge, yielding all-cause mortality of 30.8%. However, there were no between-group differences concerning mortality. Age, heart failure, cancer/autoimmune disease, disease severity, interferon beta-1a, and arrhythmia were the independent predictors of all-cause mortality during and after hospitalization. Conclusion: CV complications occurred widely among COVID-19 patients. Moreover,arrhythmia, as the most common complication, was associated with increased mortality.

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