Department of Nuclear Medicine, Konya City Hospital, Konya, Turkey.
Department of Cardiology, Konya City Hospital, Konya, Turkey.
Int J Cardiovasc Imaging. 2023 Nov;39(11):2279-2284. doi: 10.1007/s10554-023-02928-5. Epub 2023 Sep 4.
Incomplete recovery with long-term complications weeks beyond the acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection is referred to as long COVID. Among the well-known long-term complications of COVID-19, myocardial damage is a frequently encountered side effect. Yet there is a lack of data for identifying high-risk patients who are more likely to develop long-term cardiovascular complications following COVID-19. Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) is the primary functional imaging modality in evaluating myocardial ischemia This study aimed to investigate the role of MPI in predicting myocardial ischemia in patients diagnosed with long COVID.
Subjects were selected from eligible long COVID patients and control subjects without a prior history of COVID-19 who were referred to the nuclear medicine department for stress and rest single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) MPI. All participants' past medical records and clinical, and demographic characteristics were scanned. In addition, patients undergoing coronary angiography (CAG) following SPECT MPI were documented and patients with critical coronary stenosis were identified.
Our results revealed that long COVID patients had higher rates of abnormal summed stress scores compared to the control subjects (p < 0.05). Additionally, serum CRP level, SPECT lung-to-heart ratio (LHR), and the presence of long COVID were independent predictors of ischemia. The presence of long COVID was the best predictor of ischemia among the aforementioned parameters (p < 0.001).
Our data indicate that SPECT MPI provides comprehensive information on myocardial perfusion and left ventricular function in long COVID patients.
在急性 2019 冠状病毒病（COVID-19）感染数周后出现长期并发症且无法完全康复，这种情况被称为长新冠。在 COVID-19 的众多已知长期并发症中，心肌损伤是一种常见的副作用。然而，目前缺乏针对 COVID-19 后更有可能发生长期心血管并发症的高危患者的识别数据。心肌灌注成像（MPI）是评估心肌缺血的主要功能成像方式。本研究旨在探讨 MPI 在预测长新冠患者心肌缺血中的作用。
从符合条件的长新冠患者和无 COVID-19 既往史的对照患者中选择研究对象，这些患者因疑似心肌缺血而被转至核医学科进行应激和静息单光子发射计算机断层扫描（SPECT）MPI。扫描所有参与者的既往病历和临床及人口统计学特征。此外，记录了 SPECT MPI 后进行冠状动脉造影（CAG）的患者，并确定了有临界冠状动脉狭窄的患者。
我们的研究结果显示，与对照组相比，长新冠患者的异常总和应激评分更高（p<0.05）。此外，血清 CRP 水平、SPECT 肺与心脏比值（LHR）以及长新冠的存在是缺血的独立预测因素。在上述参数中，长新冠的存在是缺血的最佳预测因素（p<0.001）。
我们的数据表明，SPECT MPI 可为长新冠患者的心肌灌注和左心室功能提供全面信息。
