부산대학교 도서관

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been proved as a multi-organ disease with deleterious effect on the cardiovascular system.1 COVID-19 infection has been associated with impaired subclinical markers of cardiovascular and endothelial function even in patients with mild severity of COVID-19.2 Furthermore, subclinical myocardial and vascular dysfunction during COVID-19 disease have been associated with worse outcomes and higher mortality risk.3 Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWVc-f) and central systolic blood pressure (SBPcentral) are reliable markers of aortic elastic properties and have been suggested as valuable prognostic markers for cardiovascular events.4 Glycocalyx damage, as assessed by perfused boundary region (PBR5-25) of sublingual microvessel, impaired artery flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) and coronary flow reserve (CFR) may represent early manifestations of endothelial dysfunction with prognostic value.5,6 Left and right ventricular global longitudinal strain (GLS) and myocardial work indices permit early detection of subclinical myocardial deformation.7 In our previous study,8 COVID-19 patients displayed impaired endothelial function, aortic elasticity, CFR and myocardial deformation 4 months after COVID-19 infection compared to healthy controls with similar age, sex and risk factors. A total of 24 patients (34.28%) were diagnosed with mild disease and were not subsequently hospitalized at any time of the course of the disease, whereas 23 (32.85%) patients were diagnosed to have moderate and 23 (32.85%) severe disease and thus were admitted to hospital. Myocardial work and vascular dysfunction are partially improved at 12 months after COVID-19 infection. [Extracted from the article]