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.