Abstract
AIMS: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) can affect cardiovascular function in health and disease. The present study assessed the effect of prior COVID-19 infection on cardiovascular phenotype at rest and in response to exercise in middle age and older individuals.
METHODS: This case-control, single-centre study recruited 124 participants: 84 with a history of COVID-19 (59.9 ± 7.41 years, 54.8% female) and 40 participants without history of COVID-19 infection (62.8 ± 7.14 years, 62.5% female). All participants underwent non-invasive assessment of arterial function using pulse wave velocity (PWV), augmentation index (Alx) and hemodynamic function (i.e., cardiac index (CI), stroke volume index (SVI), heart rate (HR), mean arterial blood pressure (MAP)) at rest. Cardiopulmonary exercise stress testing with simultaneous gas exchange and hemodynamic (bioreactance) measurements was also performed.
RESULTS: There were no differences between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 groups in PWV (COVID-19: 7.52 ± 1.66 m/s, non-COVID-19: 7.32 ± 1.79 m/s, p = 0.440); Alx (COVID-19: 29.2 ± 9.12%, non-COVID-19: 29.2 ± 8.44%, p = 0.980); CI (COVID-19: 2.85 ± 0.39 L/min/m 2, non-COVID-19: 2.79 ± 0.37 L/min/m 2, p = 0.407); SVI (COVID-19: 46.5 ± 7.54 mL/m 2, non-COVID-19: 47.0 ± 7.59 mL/m 2, p = 0.776), HR (COVID-19: 62.3 ± 10.6 beats/min, Non-COVID-19: 60.2 ± 8.52 beats/min, p = 0.263), or MAP (COVID-19: 98.1 ± 11.2 mmHg, non-COVID-19: 96.6 ± 9.46 mmHg, p = 0.464). COVID-19 participants however demonstrated lower O 2 consumption at anaerobic threshold (15.5 ± 4.25 vs 16.8 ± 4.51 mL/kg/m 2, p = 0.034), peak cardiac index (10.4 ± 2.3 vs 11.3 ± 2.5 L/min/m 2, p = 0.040) and peak stroke volume index (82.1 ± 25.3 vs 98.6 ± 37.6 mL/m 2, p = 0.028).
CONCLUSION: Healthy middle-age and older individuals with history COVID-19 infection demonstrate reduced exercise tolerance and cardiac function response to exercise.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2468339 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 28 Feb 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 28 Feb 2025 |
Bibliographical note
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permitsunrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Funding
The study was supported by Coventry University COVID-19 Research and Innovation fund for the PhD Studentship developed by Professor Djordje Jakovljevic and awarded to SLR. DGJ, NO, and PB receive funding from the European Union\u2019s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101080905 and United Kingdom Research and Innovation grant award with reference No 10073472. The design of the study, data collection, analyses, interpretation of data, and drafting of the manuscript do not reflect the views and opinions of the funders. Authors would like to thank participants for their time in undertaking the present study.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Coventry University | |
| Horizon Europe | 101080905 |
| UK Research and Innovation | 10073472 |
Keywords
- COVID-19
- arterial function
- cardiovascular function
- exercise tolerance
- oxygen consumption;
- anaerobic threshold
- arterial stiffness
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine