Biochemical Myocardial Injury, echocardiographic
abnormalities and outcomes
Our results demonstrate that cardiac biomarkers were a significant
predictor of mortality for those with COVID-19. Patients with negative
troponins (peak troponin less than or equal to 0.01) had a mortality
rate of 16% compared to 43% with any elevation (p<.003). Pro
BNP was also implicated, with levels over 19280 serving as an
independent risk factor for mortality (p<.002). In our cohort
20% of the patients had LVSD or RVD, which correlated with the
worsening biochemical profile. There was numerically higher mortality in
the patients with left ventricle dysfunction but it did not reach
statistical significance. One possible explanation for this finding
could be the timing between echocardiography and time of death, which
was a median of 5 days. It is likely that the cardiac function continued
to worsen as these patients got sicker with worsening biochemical
profiles and increasing pressor requirement.