Background
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia, caused by the SARS
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread rapidly all over the world [1,
2]. It can induce systemic multiple organ damage, especially the lungs
[3]. It is reported that 26.1% of patients required admission to an
intensive care unit (ICU) and 61.1% of them developed acute respiratory
distress syndrome (ARDS) [4]. Moreover, the incidence of ARDS among
the patients who died of COVID-19 pneumonia was 81%, however, which was
45% in survivors [5].
We have already known that ARDS is often accompanied by right
ventricular (RV) dysfunction and the incidence is about 20-30%, and RV
dysfunction is an important determinant of mortality in ARDS patients
[6-8]. However, the incidence of RV dysfunction in patients with
ARDS caused by COVID-19 pneumonia is unclear. At present,
echocardiography is still the prefered choice for evaluating RV function
of patients with ARDS, with the advantages of bedside, non-invasive and
convenient. Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) is widely
used as a quantitative index to evaluate RV function, which is highly
correlated with the mortality of ARDS patients, thus providing a good
parameter for us to interpret RV function in COVID-19 patients [9].
In this study, we sought to determine the incidence of RV dysfunction
using echocardiography in a cohort of patients with ARDS caused by
COVID-19 pneumonia.