Reversible cardiac dysfunction in severe COVID-19 infection, mechanisms and case report

Echocardiography. 2020 Sep;37(9):1465-1469. doi: 10.1111/echo.14807. Epub 2020 Aug 27.

Abstract

A previously healthy 49-year-old male patient presented with COVID-19 infection and required mechanical ventilation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation due to severe hypoxemia. Echocardiography showed cardiac dysfunction with an apical sparing strain pattern, which rapidly normalized within a week. Apical sparing myocardial strain in patients with COVID-19 infection may suggest reverse-type stress cardiomyopathy.

Keywords: COVID-19; myocarditis; speckle-tracking strain; stress-induced cardiomyopathy.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19 / complications*
  • COVID-19 / physiopathology
  • Echocardiography / methods*
  • Heart Ventricles / diagnostic imaging
  • Heart Ventricles / physiopathology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Remission, Spontaneous*
  • Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / diagnostic imaging*
  • Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / etiology*
  • Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / physiopathology