Cardiac sequelae after coronavirus disease 2019 recovery: a systematic review.

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been implicated in a wide spectrum of cardiac manifestations following the acute phase of the disease. Objectives To assess the range of cardiac sequelae after COVID-19 recovery. Data sources PubMed, Embase, Scopus (inception through 17 February 2021) and Google scholar (2019 through 17 February 2021). Study eligibility criteria Prospective and retrospective studies, case reports and case series. Participants Adult patients assessed for cardiac manifestations after COVID-19 recovery. Exposure Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection diagnosed by PCR. Methods Systematic review. Results Thirty-five studies (fifteen prospective cohort, seven case reports, five cross-sectional, four case series, three retrospective cohort and one ambidirectional cohort) evaluating cardiac sequelae in 52 609 patients were included. Twenty-nine studies used objective cardiac assessments, mostly cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) in 16 studies, echocardiography in 15, electrocardiography (ECG) in 16 and cardiac biomarkers in 18. Most studies had a fair risk of bias. The median time from diagnosis/recovery to cardiac assessment was 48 days (1–180 days). Common short-term cardiac abnormalities ( Conclusions COVID-19 appears to be associated with persistent/de novo cardiac injury after recovery, particularly subclinical myocardial injury in the earlier phase and diastolic dysfunction later. Larger well-designed and controlled studies with baseline assessments are needed to better measure the extent of cardiac injury and its clinical impact.