ABSTRACT
Resumen Este artículo de revisión pretende resumir el papel de la imagen cardiaca en cuanto a los avances técnicos y de conocimiento más relevantes publicados en el último año. Aunque la imagen cardiaca sigue ocupando un lugar destacado en el diagnóstico y en la detección de complicaciones de la afectación cardiaca por la infección por coronavirus, otros temas candentes están claramente de actualidad. Entre lo más relevante cabe destacar la confirmación de la utilidad pronóstica de parámetros obtenidos mediante técnicas de imagen avanzada en el campo de las valvulopatías, prevención cardiovascular o cardio-oncología, el papel destacado de la imagen en el primer escalón diagnóstico de las nuevas guías de dolor torácico o el crecimiento exponencial del intervencionismo estructural percutáneo, donde se hace necesario un mayor conocimiento en la selección de pacientes, el timing del procedimiento o los predictores de éxito. Por último, la inteligencia artificial es un aliado que ha llegado para quedarse, y esperemos que la precisión y la rentabilidad diagnósticas, así como los tiempos dedicados a la interpretación, mejoren gracias a este avance tecnológico. This review article aims to summarize the role of cardiac imaging regarding the most relevant technical and knowledge advances published within the last year. Although diagnosis and detection of cardiac involvement due to coronavirus disease maintain a prominent place, other interesting hot topics have been raised. Among the most relevant, it is noteworthy to highlight the prognostic utility of different parameters obtained by advanced imaging techniques in the field of valvular heart disease, cardiovascular prevention or cardio-oncology, the prominent role of imaging in the first diagnostic step of the new Chest Pain guidelines or the exponential growth of percutaneous structural interventionism, where further knowledge is demanded in terms of patient selection, procedure timing or predictors of success. Finally, artificial intelligence is a promising tool already in our hands, we hope that diagnostic precision and interpretation time will improve thanks to these technological advances.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Hypertension, Pulmonary , Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension , Humans , Incidence , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
The Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has supposed a global health emergency affecting millions of people, with particular severity in the elderly and patients with previous comorbidities, especially those with cardiovascular disease. Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) could represent an especially vulnerable population because of the high mortality rates reported for respiratory infections. However, the number of COVID-19 cases reported among PAH and CTEPH patients is surprisingly low. Furthermore, the clinical picture that has been described in these patients is far from the severity that experts would expect. Endothelial dysfunction is a common feature between patients with PAH/CTEPH and COVID-19, leading to ventilation/perfusion mismatch, vasoconstriction, thrombosis and inflammation. In this picture, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 plays an essential role, being directly involved in the pathophysiology of both clinical entities. Some of these common characteristics could explain the good adaptation of PAH and CTEPH patients to COVID-19, who could also have obtained a benefit from the disease's specific treatments (anticoagulant and pulmonary vasodilators), probably due to its protective effect on the endothelium. Additionally, these common features could also lead to PAH/CTEPH as a potential sequelae of COVID-19. Throughout this comprehensive review, we describe the similarities and differences between both conditions and the possible pathophysiological and therapeutic-based mechanisms leading to the low incidence and severity of COVID-19 reported in PAH/CTEPH patients to date. Nevertheless, international registries should look carefully into this population for better understanding and management.