Echocardiographic patterns in critically ill COVID-19 patients.

Abstract

Background: Need for catecholamines is frequent in COVID-19 patients, but the main echocardiographic patterns are unknown. The objective was to report the main echo patterns in critically-ill COVID-19 patients. Methods: Observational and descriptive study in consecutive COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU between March 12 and May 8, 2020. Systematic critical care echocardiography (CCE) was performed and retrospectively analyzed off-line. Echo values are reported in the overall population and in patients who required catecholamine infusion during the first 2 days following admission (D1-2) or afterwards until day 7 (D3-7). Results: Of the 79 patients (78% male; median age 63 [56-71]; body mass index 29 [26-30]) included, 90% had at least 1 comorbidity. PaO2/FiO2 at admission was 85 [67-162] mmHg. 53% of patients were mechanically ventilated. ICU length of stay was 9 [5-16] days and mortality 34%. 134 echocardiographic studies were performed during the first week in 65 patients. Pulmonary artery acceleration time was decreased (77 [65-97] ms), suggesting pulmonary hypertension. All 39 patients (49%) who required catecholamine infusion underwent CCE and 25.6% had left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction, 28.2% acute cor pulmonale (ACP), 7.7% hypovolemia, and 38.5% vasoplegia. Modification of echo patterns was observed at D3-7, with less LV systolic dysfunction and more ACP, which was the most frequent pattern. Computed tomography pulmonary angiography in 6 patients with ACP indicated intrapulmonary thrombus in 4. Conclusion: Different echocardiographic patterns were observed during the first week following ICU admission in COVID-19 patients. ACP was frequent and often related to thrombus in the pulmonary circulation.

Right Ventricular Dysfunction and Its Association With Mortality in Coronavirus Disease 2019 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome*

“…Pulmonary vascular dysfunction has been implicated in their pathophysiology (6, 7), and myocardial injury is a poor prognostic sign (8, 9). However, few studies have reported on right heart function in these patients and those that have tend to look at mixed cohorts of illness severity rather those mechanically ventilated with ARDS (10–12).…”