Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): Background: It is still not well understood whether cardiac injury observed during acute COVID-19 infection extends after recovery from the initial viral infection. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of left and right ventricular dysfunction in patients hospitalized with acute COVID-19 and evaluate for cardiac recovery.
Methods: A multicenter, retrospective cohort study was conducted. Adult patients were identified by hospitalizations using ICD-10 code U07.1 from March 2020 to October 2021. Patients were included if they had: 1) acute COVID-19 infection confirmed by RT-PCR and 2) a transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) performed during their hospitalization. Clinical and echocardiographic data were collected and analyzed. Longitudinal TTE parameters were obtained from follow-up studies performed after discharge.
Results: A total of 750 patients (mean age 64.3 ± 15.3 years, 60.0% male) were included. The average time to follow-up TTE was 8.7± 7.4 months. 133 patients (17.7%) had new LV dysfunction seen on TTE (Figure 1). LV recovery (defined as normalization of LVEF or improvement of LVEF by >10% from baseline) was observed in 28 of 74 (37.8%) survivors. 9 of 26 patients (34.6%) who had a follow-up TTE <6 months post-discharge recovered their LV function, while 19 of 48 patients (39.6%) who had a follow-up TTE ≥6 months had LV recovery. 94 of 725 patients (13.0%) with reported RV parameters had new RV dysfunction seen on TTE. RV recovery (defined as normalization of RV function) was observed in 11 of 38 (28.9%) survivors. 6 of 18 patients (33.3%) who had a follow-up TTE <6 months post-discharge recovered their RV function, while 5 of 20 patients (25%) who had a follow-up TTE ≥6 months had RV recovery.
Conclusions: Most surviving patients who developed new LV or RV dysfunction did not recover their ventricular function at follow-up, but recovery extended beyond 6 months follow-up.