Title: Electrocardiographic Features and Outcome: Correlations in 124 Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19 and Cardiovascular Events.

Authors: Nathala, Pavani; Salunkhe, Vidyulata; Samanapally, Harideep; Xu, Qian; Furmanek, Stephen; Fahmy, Omar H; Deepti, Fnu; Glynn, Alex; McGuffin, Trevor; Goldsmith, Dylan C; Petrey, Jessica; Ali, Tshura; Titus, Derek; Carrico, Ruth; Ramirez, Julio; Antimisiaris, Demetra; Clifford, Sean P; Pahwa, Siddharth; Roser, Lynn; Kong, Maiying; Huang, Jiapeng; Center of Excellence for Research in Infectious Diseases (CERID) Coronavirus Study Group on behalf of the COVID-19 Cardiovascular Research Group (COVID-CVRG)

Published In J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth, (2022 Aug)

Abstract: OBJECTIVES: Electrocardiographic (ECG) changes have been associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity. However, the progression of ECG findings in patients with COVID-19 has not been studied. The purpose of this study was to describe ECG features at different stages of COVID-19 cardiovascular (CV) events and to examine the effects of specific ECG parameters and cardiac-related biomarkers on clinical outcomes in COVID-19. DESIGN: Retrospective, cohort study. SETTING: Major tertiary-care medical centers and community hospitals in Louisville, KY. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 124 patients with COVID-19 and CV events during hospitalization. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Twelve-lead ECG parameters, biomarkers of cardiac injuries, and clinical outcomes were analyzed with Spearman correlation coefficients and Kruskal-Wallis 1-way analysis of variance. Atrial fibrillation/atrial flutter was more frequent on the ECG obtained at the time of the CV event when compared with admission ECG (9.5% v 26.9%; p = 0.007). Sinus tachycardia was higher in the last available hospital ECG than the CV event ECG (37.5% v 20.4%; p = 0.031). Admission ECG-corrected QT interval was significantly associated with admission troponin levels (R = 0.52; p < 0.001). The last available hospital ECG showed nonsurvivors had longer QRS duration than survivors (114.6 v 91.2 ms; p = 0.026), and higher heart rate was associated with longer intensive care unit length of stay (Spearman ρ = 0.339; p = 0.032). CONCLUSIONS: In hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and CV events, ECGs at various stages of COVID-19 hospitalization showed significantly different features with dissimilar clinical outcome correlations.

PubMed ID: 35165040

MeSH Terms: COVID-19*; Cardiovascular Diseases*/diagnosis; Cardiovascular Diseases*/epidemiology; Cohort Studies; Electrocardiography; Humans; Retrospective Studies