Participants
This single center, prospective, cohort study was performed at the Hankou Hospital in Wuhan City, China. Consecutive patients who recovered from severe COVID-19 and complained of resting palpitations symptoms from February 1 to April 1, 2020, were included.
The severe cases of COVID-19 were defined by the presence of any of the following 11: shortness of breath and the respiratory rate > 30 breaths/min; oxygen saturation ≤ 93%; partial pressure of oxygen to fraction of inspire oxygen ratio ≤ 300 mmHg; lung infiltrates > 50% within 24 to 48 hours; respiratory failure; septic shock; and/or multiple organ dysfunction or failure. All the recovered COVID-19 patients met the discharge criteria as follows11: afebrile for at least three days, respiratory symptoms significantly improved, improvement in the radiological abnormalities on chest radiograph or CT, and two consecutive negative SARS-CoV-2 tests more than 24 hours apart. Patients who refused to participate in this study were excluded.
The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and Wuhan Hankou Hospital. Written informed consents were obtained from all the individuals who participated in this study.