Abstract
Background:
Inflammation is known to play a crucial role in many diseases, including COVID-19.
Objective:
Using flow-mediated dilatation (FMD), we aimed to assess the effects of inflammation on endothelial function in COVID-19 patients.
Methods:
This study was conducted with a total of 161 subjects, of whom 80 were diagnosed with COVID-19 within the last six months (comprising 48 women and 32 men with a mean age of 32.10 ± 5.87 years) and 81 were healthy controls (comprising 45 women and 36 men with a mean age of 30.51 ± 7.33 years). We analyzed the findings of transthoracic echocardiography and FMD in all subjects. All results were considered statistically significant at the level of p < 0.05.
Results:
The echocardiography and FMD of the COVID-19 group were performed 35 days (range: 25-178) after diagnosis. There was no statistically significant difference in echocardiographic parameters. Differently, FMD (%) was significantly higher in the control group (9.52 ± 5.98 vs. 12.01 ± 6.18, p=0.01). In multivariate analysis with the forward stepwise model, FMD was significantly different in the control group compared to the COVID-19 group (1.086 (1.026 - 1.149), p=0.04). A Spearman’s correlation test indicated that FMD (r=0.27, p=0.006) had a weak positive correlation with the presence of COVID-19.
Conclusion:
Our findings point to COVID-19-induced endothelial dysfunction, as assessed by FMD, in the early recovery phase.
Keywords:
COVID-19/complications; Endothelial, Cells/infection; Endothelium Vascular/injuries; Diagnostic Imaging/methods; Echocardiography/methods; Ultrasonography/methods; Flow Dilatation; Myalgia; Olfaction Disorders; Taste Disorders