Analysis of cardiac involvement in patients recovered from Covid-19 without troponin elevation, evaluated by cardiovascular magnetic resonance. (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Background: The disease caused by coronavirus (COVID-19) affects the cardiovascular system, whether by direct viral aggression or indirectly through systemic inflammation and multiple organ compromise. A widely used method to determine cardiac injury is troponin measurement. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of cardiac involvement (CINV) in a population recovered from COVID-19, referred to cardiac MRI (CMR), who did not present troponin elevation. Methods There were 156 patients that recovered from COVID-19 and who did not present troponin elevation referred to CMR. CINV was considered to be the presence of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), edema, myocarditis, pericarditis, left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) and/or depressed right ventricular systolic dysfunction (RVSD). Results Prevalence of CINV was 28.8%, being more frequent in men (p = 0.002), in patients who required hospitalization (p = 0.04) and in those who experienced non-mild cases of infection (p = 0.007). RVSD (17.9%) and LVSD (13.4%) were the most frequent findings. The rate of myocarditis was 0.6%. LGE manifested in 7.1% of patients and its presence was related to less left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (p = 0.0001) and right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) (p = 0.04). Conclusion In patients who recovered from COVID-19, 28.8% of CINV was found. It was more frequent in men, in patients who required admission and in patients with cases of non-mild infection. The patients that presented LGE had less LVEF and RVSF.