Results
Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of the study groups were summarized in Table 1. COVID-19 (+) patients had a higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure and a lower oxygen saturation, as well as higher fibrinogen, ferritin and d-dimer concentrations at baseline. To note, there were no significant differences between patients in terms of age, gender, obesity, or other evaluated risk factors for atherosclerosis. Echocardiographic characteristics and coronary flow measurements of the study groups were summarized in Table 2. Conventional echocardiographic measurements were not different between groups, except for a significantly higher left atrial diameter in the COVID-19 (+) group. Basal coronary flow velocity was similar between groups, but hyperemic flow velocity was significantly lower in patients with COVID-19, leading to a statistically significant difference for CFVR between groups. Both basal and hyperemic heart rates were higher in the COVID-19 (+) group, but both findings did not reach statistical significance.