Long COVID Syndrome and Cardiovascular Manifestations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Author: Dr. Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia
Year:
Full Citation:
Long COVID syndrome is a significant cause of morbidity in COVID-19 28 patients who remain symptomatic with varied clinical presentations beyond three weeks. Further-29 more, the relevance of considering cardiovascular outcomes in post-COVID-19 syndrome is im-30 portant in the current COVID-19 pandemic; (2) Methods: This systematic review and meta-analysis 31 was conducted as per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses 32 guidelines. Systematic searches were conducted without language restriction from multiple data-33 bases till October 8, 2022, to find studies evaluating cardiovascular outcomes such as arrhythmias, 34 disease of myocardium/pericardium, coronary vessel disease, and thromboembolic disorders in 35 post-COVID cases. Pooled odds ratio (OR) and standard mean difference (SMD) with their corre-36 sponding 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were computed to find the association; (3) Results: Al-37 together, seven studies with a total of 8126462 (cases: 1321305 and controls: 6805157) participants 38 were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled odds ratios of cardiovascular outcomes except mortality 39 were significantly higher in post-COVID cases than in controls. However, the heart rate variability 40 between cases and controls was not statistically significant [standard mean difference:-0.06, (95%CI: 41-1.03-0.92), I 2 = 95.25%, p= 0.91].; (4) Conclusions: Significant cardiovascular sequelae in long COVID 42 syndrome emphasizes careful cardiac monitoring of COVID-19 patients in the post-COVID phase 43 to timely alleviate cardiovascular complications. Further large-scale prospective studies are needed 44 for accurate estimation. 45 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Keywords:
cardiovascular outcome, COVID-19, long COVID, post-COVID syndrome, dysrhythmias, systematic review and meta-analysis, SARS-CoV-2, tachycardia