COVID-19 Associated Pneumonia and Pleural Effusion Masquerading as Heart Failure in Rheumatic Heart Disease

Jahanzeb Malik; Nismat Javed; Hesham Naeem; Rana Abdul Sattar; Umar Ikram

doi:10.12890/2020_001842

COVID-19 Associated Pneumonia and Pleural Effusion Masquerading as Heart Failure in Rheumatic Heart Disease

Eur J Case Rep Intern Med. 2020 Jul 10;7(8):001842. doi: 10.12890/2020_001842. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Jahanzeb Malik¹, Nismat Javed², Hesham Naeem¹, Rana Abdul Sattar¹, Umar Ikram¹

Affiliations

¹ Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, Rawal Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
² Shifa College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Abstract

The ongoing outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that began in Wuhan, China, became an international emergency when thousands of people were infected around the world. COVID-19 emerged in Pakistan in April 2020, precipitating a nationwide lockdown. While some countries are now recovering from the pandemic, its peak is not estimated to occur in Pakistan until August 2020. We present a case of rheumatic heart disease with fever, myalgia and an unusual radiological finding of the virus.

Learning points: Unusual radiological findings are being seen in COVID-19 patients.Pleural effusion in a mildly symptomatic patient is a rare presentation of the disease.Early aggressive treatment can produce dramatic improvement in COVID-19 pneumonia.

Keywords: COVID-19; pleural effusion; rheumatic heart disease.