Patient characteristics
A total of 289 consecutive patients recovering from severe COVID-19 were screened initially, from February 1 to April 1, 2020. Figure 1 shows a flowchart for patient recruitment. Of them, 24 patients (8.3%) suffered different degrees of palpitation symptom. After excluding 2 patients who refused to provide informed consent, 22 patients were included in this prospective, cohort study.
The details of all the characteristics were presented in the Table1. In total, the median age was 52 years (IQR, 44-62 years), 12 (54.5%) patients were female, and the median length of hospital stay was 24 days (IQR, 19-28 days). Half of these patients had chronic diseases, including 8 (36.3%) with hypertension, 3 (13.6%) with diabetes, 3 (13.6%) with chronic renal disease, 2 (9.1%) with coronary heart disease, 1 (4.5%) with chronic heart failure, 1 (4.5%) with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and 1 (4.5%) with cancer. Many patients presented with organ function damage during hospitalization, including 4 (18.2%) with acute respiratory distress syndrome, 4 (18.2%) with acute myocardial injury, 3 (13.6%) with acute liver injury, 2 (9.1%) with acute renal injury, and 2 (9.1%) with coagulopathy. For treatment, 19 (86.4%), 17 (77.3%), 15 (68.2%) and 15 (68.2%) patients, respectively, received antiviral drugs, antibiotics, glucocorticoids, and immunoglobulin. 4 (18.2%) patients used non-invasive ventilator mechanical ventilation, and 1 (4.5%) patient received continuous renal replacement therapy. No patients underwent invasive mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.