CLINICAL FEATURES AND STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ABNORMALITIES OF THE HEART IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE MYOCARDITIS AFTER COVID-19 INFECTION
Summary. The frequency of inflammatory myocardial damage among patients with COVID-19 infection is not precisely known and is clearly underestimated for many reasons, that is why it is relevant to conduct advanced studies aimed at determining the specific clinical features and assessing dynamic changes in the structural and functional condition of the heart in patients with myocarditis which developed after the COVID-19 infection. Purpose. Determining the clinical features and structural and functional abnormalities in patients with myocarditis with reduced ejection fraction of the left ventricle (LV) after COVID-19 infection. Materials and methods. 44 patients with severe course of myocarditis, developed within 3 months after having COVID-19 infection, were examined. All patients underwent standard transthoracic and speckle-tracking echocardiography, daily ECG monitoring and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging during the 12-month follow-up. Results. More obvious manifestations of heart failure have been diagnosed at onset of acute myocarditis developed after COVID-19 infection, which were caused by significant problems with the structural and functional condition of the heart and frequent supraventricular and ventricular heart rhythm disorders. Conclusions. The recovery of the contractile capacity of the heart in patients with myocarditis began with improvement of longitudinal global LV systolic strain, which was observed on the background of a decreased number of LV segments affected by inflammatory process, and was associated with the regression in clinical manifestations of heart contractile dysfunction and with reduction of ventricular rhythm disorders frequency.
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