Eligibility
We conducted the study during
Iran’s third COVID-19 wave in November 2020. The study population
included RCMRC’s health care workers infected with COVID-19. An overall
319 employees in this period were advised to be quarantined due to
suspicious symptoms by infectious disease specialists. We enrolled 137
individuals with a definite COVID-19 infection confirmed by a positive
RT-PCR test. Of these, 33 patients refused to undergo echocardiography,
and four were excluded from the study due to preexisting cardiovascular
disease (3 had a history of cardiac surgery, and 1 had moderate valvular
aortic stenosis). Therefore, in
the early echocardiography, 100 patients underwent comprehensive
echocardiographic examination 6 to 8 weeks after recovery and returning
to work. Of those who were performed early echocardiography, 63 patients
agreed to undergo the late echocardiography six months after the
COVID-19 diagnosis. They were otherwise healthy with no underlying
disease (e.g., structural heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, and chronic kidney disease).