Purpose: To investigate intraindividual cardiac structural and functional changes before and after COVID-19 infection in a previously healthy population with a 3T cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR).
Materials and methods: A total of 39 unhospitalized patients with COVID-19 were recruited. They participated in our previous study as non-COVID-19 healthy volunteers undergoing baseline CMR examination and were recruited to perform a repeated CMR examination after confirmed COVID-19 infection in December 2022. The CMR parameters were measured and compared between before and after COVID-19 infection with paired t tests. The laboratory measures including myocardial enzymes and inflammatory indicators were also collected when performing repeated CMR.
Results: The median duration was 393 days from the first to second CMR and 26 days from clinical symptoms onset to the second CMR. Four patients (10.3%, 4/39) had the same late gadolinium enhancement pattern at baseline and repeated CMR and 5 female patients (12.8%, 5/39) had myocardial T2 ratio >2 (2.07 to 2.27) but with normal T2 value in post-COVID-19 CMR. All other CMR parameters were in normal ranges before and after COVID-19 infection. Between before and after the COVID-19 infection, there were no significant differences in cardiac structure, function, and tissue characterization, no matter with or without symptoms (fatigue, chest discomfort, palpitations, shortness of breath, and insomnia/sleep disorders) (all P >0.05). The laboratory measures at repeated CMR were in normal ranges in all participants.
Conclusions: These intraindividual CMR studies showed unhospitalized patients with COVID-19 with normal myocardial enzymes had no measurable CMR abnormalities, which can help alleviate wide social concerns about COVID-19-related myocarditis.
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