Post-COVID-19 Cardiovascular Manifestations: A scoping review

Abstract

Post-COVID Syndrome is defined as the presence of symptoms related to COVID-19 approximately 28 days after the clinical or laboratory diagnosis is confirmed, which can last for days, weeks or months, and present a wide variety of symptoms involving several systems. Furthermore, cardiovascular system clinical manifestations in patients surviving SARSCoV-2 infection can be fatigue, chest pain, palpitations, orthopnea, edema of the lower extremities, and exercise intolerance. Objective: Explore the medical evidence about cardiovascular manifestations in Post-COVID patients. Methods: Scoping review of the literature that included PubMed and Scopus. Records of publications with empirical data (observational and experi- mental studies) in English and Spanish were included. Results: A total of 33 documents were included: prospective cohort studies (n = 20), case reports (n = 6), case series (n = 3), retrospective cohort studies (n = 2) and a cut-off study longitudinal (n = 2); the total number of the population evaluated in the papers was 9,292 patients. Chest pain and palpitations were the main symptoms present from the onset of the disease or could have developed up to 6 to 8 months after infection in patients aged between 32.3 and 68.8 years. Conclusion: The persistence of symptoms or their development is probably associated with patients who presented severe or critical COVID-19, requiring medical management in critical care and high-flow or invasive oxygen therapy. However, clinical studies that include a larger sample size and follow-up time are necessary to improve the characterization of cardiovascular clinical manifestations. © 2023 Academia de Ciencias Medicas de Bilbao. All rights reserved.