Background Myocardial injury is frequent among patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) and is associated with a poor prognosis. However, the mechanisms of myocardial injury remain unclear and prior studies have not reported cardiovascular imaging data. Objectives This study sought to characterize the echocardiographic abnormalities associated with myocardial injury and their prognostic impact in patients with COVID-19. Methods We conducted an international, multicenter cohort study including 7 hospitals in New York City and Milan of hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 who had undergone transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) and electrocardiographic evaluation during their index hospitalization. Myocardial injury was defined as any elevation in cardiac troponin at the time of clinical presentation or during the hospitalization. Results A total of 305 patients were included. Mean age was 63 years and 205 patients (67.2%) were male. Overall, myocardial injury was observed in 190 patients (62.3%). Compared with patients without myocardial injury, those with myocardial injury had more electrocardiographic abnormalities, higher inflammatory biomarkers and an increased prevalence of major echocardiographic abnormalities that included left ventricular wall motion abnormalities, global left ventricular dysfunction, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction grade II or III, right ventricular dysfunction and pericardial effusions. Rates of in-hospital mortality were 5.2%, 18.6%, and 31.7% in patients without myocardial injury, with myocardial injury without TTE abnormalities, and with myocardial injury and TTE abnormalities. Following multivariable adjustment, myocardial injury with TTE abnormalities was associated with higher risk of death but not myocardial injury without TTE abnormalities. Conclusions Among patients with COVID-19 who underwent TTE, cardiac structural abnormalities were present in nearly two-thirds of patients with myocardial injury. Myocardial injury was associated with increased in-hospital mortality particularly if echocardiographic abnormalities were present.

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This study was conducted with the objective of determining the genomic relationship between cultivated soybean (Glycine max) and wild soybean (G. soja) of the subgenus Soja, genus Glycine. Observations on cross-ability rate, hybrid viability, meiotic chromosome pairing, and pollen fertility in F 1 hybrids of G. max × G. soja and reciprocals elucidated that both species hybridized readily and set mature putative hybrid pods, generated vigorous F1 plants, had a majority of sporocytes that showed 18II + 1IV chromosome association at diakinesis and metaphase I, and had a pollen fertility that ranged from 49.2% to 53.3%. A quadrivalent was often associated with the nucleolus, suggesting that one of the chromosomes involved in the interchange is a satellited chromosome. Thus, G. max and G. soja genetic stocks used in this study have been differentiated by a reciprocal translocation. Pachytene analysis of F1 hybrids helped construct chromosome maps based on chromosome length and euchromatin and heterochromatin distribution. Chromosomes were numbered in descending order of 1-20. Pachytene chromosomes in soybean showed heterochromatin distribution on either side of the centromeres. Pachytene analysis revealed small structural differences for chromosomes 6 and 11 which were not detected at diakinesis and metaphase I. This study suggests that G. max and G. soja carry similar genomes and validates the previously assigned genome symbol GG.

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