Association of Cardiac Injury With Mortality in Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19 in Wuhan, China

Abstract

Since December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in considerable morbidity and mortality in more than 30 countries worldwide. Recently, COVID-19–associated clusters of severe respiratory illness have been independently associated with risk of mortality, and mounting evidence substantiates the presence of cardiac injury in patients with COVID-19.^1,2 Although a recent study reported that 12% of patients had COVID-19–associated acute cardiac injury,¹ manifesting as an ejection fraction decline and troponin I elevation, and the American College of Cardiology clinical bulletin has highlighted the cardiac implications of COVID-19,³ the association between COVID-19–associated cardiac injury and risk of mortality remains unclear. The present study therefore retrospectively analyzed data from a single center in Wuhan, China, to examine the potential association between cardiac injury and mortality among patients with COVID-19.