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.