Cardiac risk in recovered Covid-19 patients evaluated by 123I-mIBG
To determine whether cardiac sympathetic nervous dysfunction is present, in this single center prospective, non-randomized trial non-invasive SPECT/CT imaging using the radiotracer <sup>123</sup>I-metaiodobenzylguanidine was performed in 33 recovered COVID-19 patients without pre-existing cardiac conditions. Increased cardiac sympathetic activity, as indicated by late HMR, was observed in 67.7% of patients. At 6-8 months, 82% of these subjects (27/33) received follow-up, and cardiac sympathetic innervation abnormalities were still present in 70.4% (19/27). Additionally, at 12-15 months post-diagnosis, persistently abnormal HMRs were found in 9 individuals who initially had abnormal sympathetic innervation. Further follow-up is needed to investigate potential long-term cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19.
Authors
- Philip Raake (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8365-674X)
- Ralph A. Bundschuh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7291-9372)
- Maximilian Rieger
- Takahiro Higuchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9711-7835)
- Gabriel T. Sheikh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7026-9203)
- Alessandro Liebich
- Malte Kircher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4355-0881)
- Bernd Nittbaur
- Constantin Lapa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7536-2207)
- Christian H. Pfob (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2989-5883)
- Alexander Dierks
Institutions
- University of Augsburg (DE)
- LMU Klinikum (DE)
- Comprehensive Cancer Center Mainfranken (DE)
- Universitätsklinikum Würzburg (DE)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2025-05-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-02212-7
- Primary Topic
- Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00