the relation between changes in electrocardiography and disease severity in sars-cov2 infected patients

Background: coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) may lead to myocardial damage and arrhythmia. patients with ecg changes have shown an increased risk of mortality. objective: we aimed to study the changes in the electrocardiogram, which may be of great significance for risk stratification of covid-19-positive patients. methods: a retrospective study was conducted to compare electrocardiogram changes and disease severity markers in covid-19-positive patients admitted to a referral hospital between february 20 and march 20, 2020. results: our study consisted of 201 cases, including 123 males and 78 females. ages ranged between 16 and 97 years old. fifty-two (25.9%) cases had a history of icu admission. multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that a low o2 saturation level (or = 0.920, 95% ci 0.868–0.976, p=0.005), several lab tests, ecg changes (or = 46.84, 95% ci 3.876– 566.287, p = .002) and age (or = 1.03, 95% ci 1.000– 1.065, p = .048) were the independent risk factors for predicting mortality rate. in addition, we utilized multivariate logistic regression analysis, demonstrating that lbbb (or = 4.601, 95% ci: 1.357–15.600, p=0.014) is the only ecg risk factor associated with morbidity in elderly patients with ecg changes. conclusions: ecg changes are strong indicators of high mortality rates in elderly covid-19 patients. ecg interpretations should therefore be used for risk stratification and predicting the need for icu admission.