Echocardiographic findings in patients hospitalized by COVID-19 and its relationship with intrahospital mortality and one year after

Introduction:In December 2019, the first case of a novel coronavirus infection was reported, and its rapid spread made it a global public health problem.Cardiovascular involvement has been frequently reported.Objective: In this study, we present the echocardiographic findings of a group of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and their relationship with inpatient mortality.Method: This was an observational, cross-sectional study of hospitalized patients diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, who had an echocardiogram ordered during hospitalization.Results: A total of 2,052 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 infection were included, and echocardiograms were performed on 18%.The mean age was 62.9 years, and 37% were female.The inpatient mortality was 36.3%, and the cumulative mortality at one year after discharge was 43%.The most frequent comorbidities were hypertension in 45% of patients and diabetes in 28%.Patients who died in the hospital were significantly older (67 vs. 62 years; p < 0.01) and had right ventricular dilatation (p < 0.01) pulmonary hypertension (p = 0.03), and diastolic dysfunction (p = 0.04).In the 236 patients discharged, the oneyear all-cause mortality was 11.9%.Patients who died were older (65.5 vs. 61.5 years) and had a higher percentage of pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular dysfunction, although no statistically significant differences were found between the groups.Conclusions: This study suggests that in patients hospitalized with severe COVID, clinical and echocardiographic markers such as age over 65, right ventricular dilatation, pulmonary hypertension, and diastolic dysfunction are related to an increased risk of both inpatient and one-year mortality.