• Tushar Kotecha, Daniel S Knight, Yousuf Razvi, Kartik Kumar, Kavitha Vimalesvaran, George Thornton, Rishi Patel, Liza Chacko, James T Brown, Clare Coyle, Donald Leith, Abhishek Shetye, Ben Ariff, Robert Bell, Gabriella Captur, Meg Coleman, James Goldring, Deepa Gopalan, Melissa Heightman, Toby Hillman, Luke Howard, Michael Jacobs, Paramjit S Jeetley, Prapa Kanagaratnam, Onn Min Kon, Lucy E Lamb, Charlotte H Manisty, Palmira Mathurdas, Jamil Mayet, Rupert Negus, Niket Patel, Iain Pierce, Georgina Russell, Anthony Wolff, Hui Xue, Peter Kellman, James C Moon, Thomas A Treibel, Graham D Cole, and Marianna Fontana.
• Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG, UK.
• Eur. Heart J. 2021 May 14; 42 (19): 1866-1878.

BackgroundTroponin elevation is common in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, but underlying aetiologies are ill-defined. We used multi-parametric cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) to assess myocardial injury in recovered COVID-19 patients.Methods And ResultsOne hundred and forty-eight patients (64 ± 12 years, 70% male) with severe COVID-19 infection [all requiring hospital admission, 48 (32%) requiring ventilatory support] and troponin elevation discharged from six hospitals underwent convalescent CMR (including adenosine stress perfusion if indicated) at median 68 days. Left ventricular (LV) function was normal in 89% (ejection fraction 67% ± 11%). Late gadolinium enhancement and/or ischaemia was found in 54% (80/148). This comprised myocarditis-like scar in 26% (39/148), infarction and/or ischaemia in 22% (32/148) and dual pathology in 6% (9/148). Myocarditis-like injury was limited to three or less myocardial segments in 88% (35/40) of cases with no associated LV dysfunction; of these, 30% had active myocarditis. Myocardial infarction was found in 19% (28/148) and inducible ischaemia in 26% (20/76) of those undergoing stress perfusion (including 7 with both infarction and ischaemia). Of patients with ischaemic injury pattern, 66% (27/41) had no past history of coronary disease. There was no evidence of diffuse fibrosis or oedema in the remote myocardium (T1: COVID-19 patients 1033 ± 41 ms vs. matched controls 1028 ± 35 ms; T2: COVID-19 46 ± 3 ms vs. matched controls 47 ± 3 ms).ConclusionsDuring convalescence after severe COVID-19 infection with troponin elevation, myocarditis-like injury can be encountered, with limited extent and minimal functional consequence. In a proportion of patients, there is evidence of possible ongoing localized inflammation. A quarter of patients had ischaemic heart disease, of which two-thirds had no previous history. Whether these observed findings represent pre-existing clinically silent disease or de novo COVID-19-related changes remain undetermined. Diffuse oedema or fibrosis was not detected.© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.

21 keywords...

hide…