electrocardiographic findings of covid-19 patients and their correlation with outcome; a prospective cohort study

Introduction: being infected with covid-19 is associated with direct and indirect effects on the cardiopulmonary system and electrocardiography can aid in management of patients through rapid and early identification of these adversities.objective: the present study was designed aiming to evaluate electrocardiographic changes and their correlation with the outcome of covid-19 patients.methods: this prospective cohort study was carried out on covid-19 cases admitted to the emergency department of an educational hospital, during late february and march 2020. electrocardiographic characteristics of patients and their association with in-hospital mortality were investigated.results: one hundred and nineteen cases with the mean age of 60.52±13.45 (range: 29-89) years were studied (65.5% male). dysrhythmia was detected in 22 (18.4%) cases. t-wave inversion (28.6%), pulmonale p-wave (19.3%), left axis deviation (19.3%), and st-segment depression (16.8%) were among the most frequently detected electrocardiographic abnormalities, respectively. twelve (10.1%) cases died. there was a significant correlation between in-hospital mortality and history of diabetes mellitus (p=0.007), quick sofa score > 2 (p<0.0001), premature ventricular contraction (pvc) (p=0.003), left axis deviation (lad) (p=0.039), pulmonale p-wave (p<0.001), biphasic p-wave (p<0.001), inverted t-wave (p=0.002), st-depression (p=0.027), and atrioventricular (av) node block (p=0.002). multivariate cox regression showed that history of diabetes mellitus, and presence of pvc and pulmonale p-wave were independent prognostic factors of mortality.conclusions: based on the findings of the present study, 18.4% of covid-19 patients had presented with some kind of dysrhythmia and in addition to history of diabetes, presence of pvc and pulmonale p-wave were among the independent prognostic factors of mortality in covid-19 patients.