IMR Press / RCM / Volume 23 / Issue 12 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm2312404
Open Access Systematic Review
Cardiac Injury in COVID-19: A Systematic Review of Relevant Meta-Analyses
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1 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Third Department of Medicine, Sotiria Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece
*Correspondence: konkyriakoulis@gmail.com (Konstantinos G Kyriakoulis)
Academic Editor: Alpo Vuorio
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2022, 23(12), 404; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2312404
Submitted: 18 May 2022 | Revised: 5 September 2022 | Accepted: 20 October 2022 | Published: 12 December 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cardiovascular Health and COVID-19)
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: Cardiac injury (CI) is not a rare condition among hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Its prognostic value has been extensively reported through the literature, mainly in the context of observational studies. An impressive number of relevant meta-analyses has been conducted. These meta-analyses present similar and consistent results; yet interesting methodological issues emerge. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted aiming to identify all relevant meta-analyses on (i) the incidence, and (ii) the prognostic value of CI among hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Results: Among 118 articles initially retrieved, 73 fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review. Various criteria were used for CI definition mainly based on elevated cardiac biomarkers levels. The most frequently used biomarker was troponin. 30 meta-analyses reported the pooled incidence of CI in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 that varies from 5% to 37%. 32 meta-analyses reported on the association of CI with COVID-19 infection severity, with only 6 of them failing to show a statistically significant association. Finally, 46 meta-analyses investigated the association of CI with mortality and showed that patients with COVID-19 with CI had increased risk for worse prognosis. Four meta-analyses reported pooled adjusted hazard ratios for death in patients with COVID-19 and CI vs those without CI ranging from 1.5 to 3. Conclusions: The impact of CI on the prognosis of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 has gained great interest during the pandemic. Methodological issues such as the inclusion of not peer-reviewed studies, the inclusion of potentially overlapping populations or the inclusion of studies with unadjusted analyses for confounders should be taken into consideration. Despite these limitations, the adverse prognosis of patients with COVID-19 and CI has been consistently demonstrated.

Keywords
COVID-19
cardiac injury
prognosis
mortality
meta-analysis
Figures
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