Introduction Cardiovascular complications related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) have led to the need for echocardiographic services during the pandemic. The present study aimed to identify the echocardiographic findings in hospitalized COVID‐19 patients and their utility in disease management. Methods We included patients who were diagnosed with COVID‐19 using polymerase chain reaction and those who underwent echocardiographic examination during their hospitalization. Results Altogether, 45 patients were evaluated. The mean age was 61.4 ± 12.2 years. Hypertension (n = 29, 64%) and diabetes mellitus (n = 25, 55%) were the most common comorbidities followed by congestive heart failure (n = 11, 24%), coronary artery disease (n = 9, 20%), and valvular heart disease (n = 3, 7%). Eight patients (18%) showed evidence of myocardial injury, as suggested by elevated troponin levels. Brain natriuretic peptide was elevated in 14 patients (36%), and 14 patients had left ventricular dysfunction in the form of reduced ejection fraction (31%). Right ventricular (RV) dilatation was observed in six patients, and five patients had reduced RV ejection fraction. RV pressure and volume overload were observed in three patients. RV thrombus was observed in one patient. Pulmonary pressure was elevated in 10 patients (24%). Conclusion Two‐dimensional echocardiography can be an important bedside tool for the assessment of cardiovascular abnormalities and hemodynamic status of COVID‐19 patients.
The rapid emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 has become the biggest healthcare crisis of the last century, resulting in thousands of deaths worldwide. There have been studies that evaluated the role of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) in treating patients with COVID-19. However, the prior use of diuretics and their effect on mortality in this setting remains unknown. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of diuretics in patients admitted with COVID-19. The current study was conducted between March 15, 2020, and April 30, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in three different hospitals in Northern New Jersey, USA. The primary outcome was survival or in-hospital mortality from COVID-19 from the day of admission. The secondary outcome was severe or non-severe illness from COVID-19. This retrospective study included a total of 313 patients with a median age of 61.3 ± 14.6 years. There was a total of 68 patients taking diuretics at home and 245 patients who were not taking diuretics. There was a total of 39 (57.35%) deaths in patients taking diuretics as compared to 93 (37.96%) deaths in patients not taking diuretics (p-value 0.0042). Also, 54 (79.41%) patients who took diuretics had severe COVID-19 illness as compared to 116 (47.35%) who did not take diuretics (pvalue <.0001). However, after adjusting for the confounding factors, there was no difference in mortality or severity of illness in COVID-19 patients taking diuretics at the time of admission. In conclusion, there was no effect of the baseline use of diuretics in the prognosis of COVID-19.
Introduction: Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) continues to be on the rise not only in the Western developed world but also affecting the South Asian race, particularly Bangladeshis. The objectives of this study were as follows: To determine whether or not risk factors of Bangladeshis differ from non-Bangladeshis, whether there is any difference in the extent of CAD for both groups, and if there are risk factors that can significantly affect the extent of CAD Methods: All patients with a diagnosis of CAD admitted to our 800-bed tertiary care hospital between January 2001 and December 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. We reviewed the age, sex, body-mass index (BMI), cardiac risk factors such as family history of CAD, dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes and smoking. We also reviewed coronary angiographic findings of these consecutive 150 Bangladeshis and a randomly selected group of 193 non-Bangladeshis. Results: A total of 343 medical records were evaluated, this included two groups: 193 non-Bangladeshis and 150 Bangladeshi subjects. The Bangladeshi group was older than the non-Bangladeshi group (63.49 vs 59.22, p-value=0.001), and included a larger proportion of males than the non-Bangladeshi group (28.7% vs 15.68%, p-value=0.0116). Bangladeshi subjects are more likely to be smokers than non-Bangladeshi (11.75% vs 6.67%, χ2=12.7, p-value=0.0004). Non-obstructive, 1-vessel, 2-vessel and 3-vessel accounts for 13.33%, 36.67%, 22%, and 28% for Bangladeshis, and 16.39%, 20.77% 34.43% and 28.42% for non-Bangladeshis, respectively. The difference of extent of CAD is significant between two groups (χ2 =12.397, p-value=0.0061). The findings suggest that Bangladeshi ethnicity has almost 2 times the likelihood of having 1-vessel CAD at coronary angiography (OR=2.361, 95% CI 1.452-3.839, p=0.0005). Conclusion: This study is a pivotal starting point for further evaluating the link between Bangladeshis and CAD. In our study we found that being Bangladeshi increases the risk of having CAD and may be an independent risk factor for multi-vessel CAD.
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