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. 2020 Aug;43(8):891-893.
doi: 10.1111/pace.13987. Epub 2020 Jul 3.

Low prevalence of arrhythmias in clinically stable COVID-19 patients

Simone Sala  1 , Giovanni Peretto  1   2 , Giacomo De Luca  2   3 , Nicola Farina  2   3 , Corrado Campochiaro  3 , Moreno Tresoldi  4 , Lorenzo Dagna  2   3 , Alberto Zangrillo  5 , Simone Gulletta  1 , Paolo Della Bella  1
Affiliations

Low prevalence of arrhythmias in clinically stable COVID-19 patients

Simone Sala et al. Pacing Clin Electrophysiol. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Background: No studies investigated the prevalence of arrhythmias among clinically-stable patients affected by COVID-19 infection.

Methods: We assessed prevalence, type, and burden of arrhythmias, by a single-day snapshot in seven non-intensive COVID Units at a third-level center.

Results: We enrolled 132 inhospital patients (mean age 65±14y; 66% males) newly diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. Arrhythmic episodes were detected in 12 patients (9%). In detail, 8 had atrial fibrillation, and 4 self-limiting supraventricular tachyarrhythmias. There were no cases of ventricular arrhythmias or new-onset atrioventricular blocks. In addition, we report no patients with QTc interval >450 ms.

Conclusions: Our single-day snapshot survey suggests that the prevalence of arrhythmias among clinically stable COVID-19 patients is low. In particular, no life-threatening arrhythmic events occurred.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; arrhythmias; atrial fibrillation; coronavirus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported.

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