Patients with long COVID-19 may have cardiac complications due to dyspnea after 1 year
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Patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 may have developed cardiac complications as they continued presenting with dyspnea 1 year after hospital discharge, according to a small study presented at EuroEcho 2021.
“Our study shows that more than a third of COVID-19 patients with no history of heart or lung disease had persistent dyspnea on effort a year after discharge from hospital,” Maria-Luiza Luchian, MD, PhD student at the University Hospital Brussels, said in a press release. “When looking in detail at heart function by cardiac ultrasound, we observed subtle abnormalities that might explain the continued breathlessness.”
Researchers enrolled 66 patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 (mean age, 50 years; 67% men) from March to April 2020 at the University Hospital Brussels. All patients had no previous heart or lung disease. Participants had their lung function and possible COVID-19 sequelae assessed through spirometry and chest CT 1 year after discharge. Researchers performed transthoracic echocardiography and used myocardial work, a new imaging technique, to provide more accurate information on heart function.
At 1 year after hospital discharge, 35% of patients had dyspnea during physical activity. When examining the association between cardiac imaging measures and dyspnea on year post-discharge after adjusting for age and sex, researchers observed an independent and significant association between abnormal heart function and persistent dyspnea. These associations were observed among both the global constructive work (OR = 0.998; 95% CI, 0.996-1; P = .038) and the global work index (OR = 0.998; 95% CI, 0.996-1; P = .042).
According to Luchian, these findings may help explain why some patients with long COVID continue experiencing dyspnea 1 year post-discharge and may indicate an association with decreased cardiac performance.
“Myocardial work could be a new echocardiographic tool for early identification of heart function abnormalities in patients with long COVID-19, who might need more frequent and long-term cardiac surveillance,” Luchian said in the release. “Future studies including different COVID-19 variants and the impact of vaccination are needed to confirm our results on the long-term evolution and possible cardiac consequences of this disease.”
Reference:
- Breathlessness in patients with long COVID may signal heart problems. Published Dec. 9, 2021. Accessed Dec. 9, 2021.
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Luchian ML, et al. More insights from imaging into outcome after COVID-19 infection. Presented at: EuroEcho 2021; Dec. 9-11, 2021 (virtual meeting).
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