Christle C. Guevarra*, Nicholas Murray, Daniel Cipriani, Kevin Mailland, Amber Char, Kyle Coffman, Cameron Davis, Frank Truong, Alfred Danielian, Glenn Barnes, Wade Gaal
Guevarra et al. J Clin Transl Res 2022; 8(1):4
Published online: January 3, 2022
Abstract
Background: Recent studies suggest that the prevalence of cardiac involvement in young competitive athletes with SARS-CoV-2 infection appears to be low.
Aim: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of cardiovascular involvement in young competitive athletes.
Methods: In this single-center retrospective cohort study from one Division I university, we assessed the prevalence of cardiovascular involvement among collegiate athletes who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. Data were collected from June 25, 2020, to May 15, 2021. The primary outcome was the prevalence of cardiac involvement based on a comparison of pre-and post-infection ECGs. The secondary outcome was to evaluate for any association between ethnicity and the presence or absence of symptoms.
Results: Among 99 athletes who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus (mean age 19.9 years [SD 1.7 years]; 31% female), baseline ECG changes suggestive of cardiovascular involvement post-infection were detected in two athletes (2/99; 2%). There was a statistically significant association between ethnicity and the presence or absence of symptoms, χ2(3, N = 99) = 10.61, p = 0.01.
Conclusions. The prevalence of cardiovascular involvement amongst collegiate athletes following SARS-CoV-2 infection in this cohort is low. Afro-American and Caucasian athletes are more likely to experience symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection in comparison to Hispanic and Pacific Islander athletes, however, there is no association between ethnicity and symptom severity.
Relevance for patients: These data add to the growing body of literature and agree with larger cohorts that the risk of cardiac involvement post-infection appears to be low among elite athletic and semi-professional athletic populations.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18053/jctres.08.202201.004
Author affiliation
1. Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
2. School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV
3. Center for Graduate Studies, West Coast University, Los Angeles, CA
4. Crozer Health Family Medicine Residency, Springfield, PA
5. Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
6. Director of Sports Cardiology & Echocardiography, Las Vegas Heart Associates, Las Vegas, NV
*Corresponding author
Christle Guevarra
Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV.
Email: christle.guevarra@gmail.com
Handling editor:
Michal Heger
Department of Pharmaceutics, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Department of Pharmaceutics, Jiaxing University Medical College, Zhejiang, China
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