Seropositive COVID-19 patients may not be more susceptible to cardiovascular abnormalities than seronegative individuals six months after a mild COVID-19 infection, according to research presented May 8 at the EuroCMR 2021 Virtual Meeting and simultaneously published in JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging.

George Joy, MBBS, et al., recruited 731 health care workers from COVIDsortium, a prospective study of three London hospitals which were associated with the first COVID-19 wave. Over four months, each participant partook in a weekly assessment covering symptoms, polymerase chain reaction, and serology testing. Seroconversion was at 21.5% among the participants. Six months after the infection, they recruited 74 seropositive and 75 seronegative control subjects for cardiovascular phenotyping. The two control groups were balanced in age, sex, and ethnicity.

Results showed among 149 participants (74 seropositive vs. 75 seronegative), seropositive infections were mild "with case definition symptoms (fever, new dry cough, anosmia, ageusia, or dysgeusia), noncase definition symptoms, and asymptomatic disease in 45 (61%), 18 (24%) and 11 (15%) respectively." However, one participant was hospitalized for two days. The researchers found no distinctions in the cardiac structure, tissue characterization, function, and biomarkers between seropositive and seronegative individuals. In the seronegative participants, there were several abnormalities detected, including T1 elevation, T2 elevation, reduced ejection fraction, biomarker elevation, and late gadolinium enhancement. However, these abnormalities were seen equally in both seropositive and seronegative health care workers in the study.

The authors conclude that "in a workforce representative population, using best available study design ... there are no detectable persistent cardiovascular abnormalities 6 months post–mild infection with SARS-CoV-2 compared with matched case control subjects."

"The COVIDsortium provides welcome, reassuring information that in healthy individuals who experience mild infection with COVID-19, persisting evidence of cardiovascular complications is very uncommon," write Colin Berry, MBChB, PhD, FACC, and Kenneth Mangion, MD, PhD, in an accompanying editorial comment. "The results do not support cardiovascular screening in individuals with mild or asymptomatic infection with COVID-19."

Clinical Topics: COVID-19 Hub

Keywords: Gadolinium, SARS-CoV-2, Ageusia, Dysgeusia, COVID-19, Stroke Volume, Cardiovascular Abnormalities, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Biomarkers, ACC International

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