Özet:

Objective: COVID-19 patients with cardiovascular involvement have been shown to have a worse prognosis compared to those without cardiovascular compromise. This study aimed to investigate whether left ventricular (LV) global and regional strain is impaired in patients with COVID-19 with or without pneumonia after discharge. Materials and Methods: Seventy-eight consecutive COVID-19 patients diagnosed by PCR test were enrolled in this cross-sectional study during their first follow-up visit to an outpatient clinic. All patients underwent two-dimensional echocardiography and speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) at the first follow-up visit. The patients were divided into two groups with or without pneumonia, and they were compared with the healthy control group. Results: A total of 123 subjects were included in the study (78 with COVID-19 and 45 in the control group). Admission and follow-up hs-troponin-T concentrations were similar in both the control group and patients with varying severity of COVID-19. LV ejection fraction (EF) was similar in all groups. However, LV global longitudinal strain (GLS) was significantly lower in subjects with pneumonia compared to the control group and subjects without pneumonia. Regional strain analysis showed that subjects with pneumonia had significantly lower strain values at mid-anterior, mid-anteroseptal, apical-inferior, apical-lateral, and apex regions than subjects without pneumonia or the control group. Conclusion: LV GLS and the regional strain were significantly impaired in COVID-19 patients with pneumonia compared to those without pneumonia or in to control group. This finding indicates that COVID-19 subjects with pneumonia should undergo strain measurement to detect concealed LV involvement.