Materials and Methods
Present study is a cross-sectional case-control study performed in a
single academic center. Patients aged between 20 and 60 years that were
diagnosed with COVID-19 infection and hospitalized with this diagnosis
were included. Patients that were past or current smokers, those with
known coronary artery disease or diabetes, those with a history of heart
failure due to any cause and patients on any kind of vasoactive drugs
that might affect CFVR measurements were excluded. In addition, patients
with a suboptimal image quality on echocardiography or patients with a
condition that precluded administration of adenosine (such as asthma)
were excluded. 50 COVID-19 patients were initially screened but 11
patients were excluded after applying these criteria. 40 age and gender
matched subjects without a previous history of COVID-19, no active
symptoms and had a negative nasopharyngeal swab for COVID-19 were
enrolled as controls. Demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters
were recorded with direct interviews and with using institutional
electronic medical database.
The study was conducted according to the 1975 Helsinki and its
subsequent revisions. All patients gave their informed consent, and the
study was approved by a local ethics committee.