Assessment of right ventricular sequelae by speckle tracking echocardiography in recovered COVID-19 patients

TTE is the main modality used to assess RV function, but conventional TTE parameters have limited diagnostic value because they may fail to detect early abnormalities in RV systolic function. Due to its ability to detect subclinical impairment of cardiac function, 2D STE has been widely used to investigate RV function. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether there are sequelae of RV function in recovered COVID-19 patients with pulmonary involvement.

This is a prospective observational cohort study of 57 healthy volunteers and 54 patients. Participants had no history of chronic illness and no evidence of respiratory or cardiac symptoms. The patients had been hospitalised with COVID-19 with pulmonary involvement but did not require intensive care unit follow-up or non-invasive mechanical ventilation support. TTE was performed. Demographic and clinical characteristics and laboratory test results were collected.

LVEF, TAPSE, St and FAC were significantly lower in the patient group. LV-LS 3-chamber, LV-GLS, RV-FWS, RV-GLS were significantly lower in the patient group.

RV-LS and LV-GLS were shown to decrease in the patient group. Although no obvious pathological values were observed in RV parameters on conventional echocardiography, TAPSE, St and FAC values were lower in the patient group.