Prevalence of Cardiovascular Involvement in Patients With COVID-19 Disease

Background: Coronaviruses are a huge family of viruses that lead to various diseases from a common cold to more unadorned illnesses for example SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Common symptoms of this infection include respiratory symptoms. In addition, this disease can also manifest with an acute cardiovascular (CV) syndrome. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of CV involvement in patients with COVID-19 disease admitted to Afzalipour Hospital in Kerman. Methods: In this study, all patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 disease and were hospitalized and monitored due to disease conditions were eligible to enter the study. At the beginning of the patient’s hospitalization, the patients’ vital signs were recorded and the first 12-lead electrocardiography was taken. Then, patients underwent cardiac monitoring and echocardiography at the beginning of hospitalization and afterwards during the course of disease. Preliminary tests including biochemistry, blood cell count, C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and troponin were also performed for patients. Results: The mean age of patients with COVID-19 was 55.63 years and 20.2% of them had a history of heart disease. More than half of these patients were men. Ejection fraction was normal in 87.8% of patients. There was a significant relationship between diastolic dysfunction grade and the history of heart disease (P = 0.02). Conclusion: Since the incidence of underlying diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiac disorders can raise the risk of corona viruses’ disease and also increase the mortality rate of this disease in these people, it is suggested that more attention be paid to the observance of health protocols for people with underlying diseases, and that people with underlying diseases be given priority in vaccinating against this disease.