Echocardiographic Findings of Covid-19 Patients in Canton Sarajevo During the Third Wave of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Armin Sljivo; Lejla Brigic; Arian Abdulkhaliq; Ilma Dadic; Leopold Reiter; Iman Sirucic; Mohammed Abdulkadir; Ahmed Mulac

doi:10.5455/msm.2023.35.290-294

Echocardiographic Findings of Covid-19 Patients in Canton Sarajevo During the Third Wave of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Mater Sociomed. 2023;35(4):290-294. doi: 10.5455/msm.2023.35.290-294.

Authors

Armin Sljivo¹, Lejla Brigic¹, Arian Abdulkhaliq², Ilma Dadic³, Leopold Reiter², Iman Sirucic¹, Mohammed Abdulkadir², Ahmed Mulac¹

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Center University of Sarajevo, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
² Faculty of Medicine, Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
³ Dom Zdravlja Sarajevo, Bosna and Herzegovina.

Abstract

Background: Increasing evidence indicates that COVID-19 may result in cardiac issues in certain individuals, such as myocarditis, arrhythmias, and heart failure. Ongoing research on echocardiographic manifestations is still limited.

Objective: To investigate the incidence and patterns of left and right ventricular dysfunction in COVID-19 patients.

Methods: This study retrospectively observed COVID-19 patients admitted to the Clinical Center of University of Sarajevo during the third wave, with a particular focus on cardiac evaluations.

Results: Our patients, predominantely male 155 (72.4%), with a mean age of 66.2±11.4, having hypertension 86 (40.1%), diabetes mellitus 61 (28.5%), hyperlipidemia 144 (67.3%), were active smokers 87 (40.6%), had family history of cardiovascular diseases 123 (57.5%) and were COVID-19 positive 95 (44.4%), presented because of chest pain 78 (36.4%), dyspnea 103 (48.1%), palpitations 67 (31.3%), fatigue 106 (49.5%) and peripheral oedema 30 (14.0%). COVID-19 patients reported much higher symptoms of dyspnea (65 (68.4%) vs 38 (31.9%)) and fatigue (73 (76.8%) vs 33 (27.7%)) than COVID-19 negative patients. On the initial laboratory report, COVID-19 patients had a significantly (p<0.05) higher mean score of C-reactive protein (24.0±4.8 vs. 6.0±2.1), D-dimer (1.6±2.5 vs 0.8±0.6), ALT (94.8±17.2 vs 36.5±19.9) and creatinine (128.0±80.8 vs. 93.4±40.1) when compared to COVID-19 negative patients. COVID-19 patients had enlarged left atrium diametes (31.6±5.6 vs 27.5±5.3), enlarged left ventricular diameter both in systole (27.9±18.1 vs 23.3±16.3) and diastole (39.3±24.1 vs 34.9±22.7), reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (53.5±9.2 vs 59.8±4.3) and elevated right ventricular systolic pressure (37.0±16.4 vs 35.1±8.6).

Conclusion: COVID-19 patients had enlarged left atrium, enlarged systolic and diastolic left ventricular diameter, reduced left ventricular ejection fraction and elevated right ventricular systolic pressure.

Keywords: COVID-19; cardiac injury; echocardiography; heart diseases; ventriculat function.