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©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Conduction system disorders and electrocardiographic findings in COVID-19 deceased patients in 2021, Shiraz, Iran
Mohammad Hossein Nikoo, Alireza Sadeghi, Alireza Estedlal, Reza Fereidooni, Niloofar Dehdari Ebrahimi, Amirhossein Maktabi, Mahtab Kamgar, Fatemeh Mehran, Omid Mehdibeygi, Haleh Esfandiari, Mohammadamir Taherinezhad Tayebi, Seyed Taghi Heydari
Mohammad Hossein Nikoo, Haleh Esfandiari, Mohammadamir Taherinezhad Tayebi, Non-communicable Diseases Research Centre, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Alireza Sadeghi, Niloofar Dehdari Ebrahimi, Amirhossein Maktabi, Mahtab Kamgar, Fatemeh Mehran, Omid Mehdibeygi, Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Alireza Estedlal, Reza Fereidooni, Seyed Taghi Heydari, Health Policy Research Center, Institute of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
Author contributions: Nikoo MH contributed to conceptualization, design, data curation, final edit and review, and project administration; Sadeghi A, Estedlal A, and Fereidooni R contributed to writing of the primary draft, final editing and review; Ebrahimi N, Maktabi A, Kamgar M, Mehran F, Mehdibeygi O, Esfandiari H, and Taherinezhad Tayebi M contributed to data collection; Heydari ST contributed to formal analysis and design; all the authors verify the data and are accountable for all aspects of the work.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (Approval No. IR.SUMS.MED.REC.1400.270).
Informed consent statement: The informed consent was waived from the patinets.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data sharing statement: Data are available for academic researchers via the research deputy of Shiraz Medical School (med_thesis@sums.ac.ir) upon reasonable request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Seyed Taghi Heydari, PhD, Associate Professor, Health Policy Research Center, Institute of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz , Iran. heydari.st@gmail.com
Received: September 5, 2022
Peer-review started: September 5, 2022
First decision: October 13, 2022
Revised: October 21, 2022
Accepted: October 31, 2022
Article in press: October 31, 2022
Published online: December 26, 2022
Processing time: 105 Days and 1.5 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with a wide range of cardiovascular compilations, especially in severe cases. Electrocardiogram is a cheap, useful and readily available tool to investigate these complications.
Research motivation
We designed this study to better understand the conduction system disturbances in the setting of severe COVID-19.
Research objectives
To discover the prevalence and types of conduction system disorders in COVID-19 deceased patients as a population representing severe COVID-19.
Research methods
All electrocardiograms of patients who died of COVID-19 in our center were analyzed, and any abnormalities were reported.
Research results
Changes in ST-T were the most common (59%), which indicate myocardial infarction or localized myocarditis. Also, 21.1% showed fragmented QRS and prolonged QTc indicative of myocardial injury. Atrioventricular block (AVB) was found in 9.3% of patients.
Research conclusions
Among patients who expired from COVID-19, ST-T changes are the most common which heralds myocardial damage. Conduction disturbances like AVBs are also important findings and are associated with myocardial damage.
Research perspectives
ECG findings in COVID-19 are variable but mostly involve two pathologies, myocardial damage and conduction system disturbances. Clinicians should be aware of these two complications in the setting of COVID-19 and future research should focus on devising preventive measures to mitigate the cardiovascular complications of COVID-19.
