METHODS
This study was conducted in parallel to the international
ECHO-COVID17, a
longitudinal observational study involving 14 ICU of tertiary teaching
hospitals in eight countries and registered inwww.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT
04414410). In the present study we included patients with confirmed
SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted to the ICU at Policlinico-San Marco
University Hospital, Catania, and receiving at least one critical care
echocardiography (CCE) exam within the first 3 days of ICU admission or
after escalation from non-invasive to invasive respiratory support
(whilst already admitted to ICU). We performed transthoracic
echocardiography (TTE) with the aid of a portable machine General
Electric (GE) Venue Go R2 equipped with TDI software. An ICU physician
with certified experience in CCE (FS) conducted all the exams. At the
time of conducting the CCE, the operator was not blinded to therapies
and patient’s history. Echocardiography calculations and interpretation
of the data were performed off-line (FS), with data check by two other
authors (LLV, VD). Data were collected in three major domains as
suggested by the PRICES appraisal and
statement26,27:
a) patient characteristics (including co-morbidities), b) clinical data
at the time of CCE exam (including hemodynamic and ventilation
variables), and c) echocardiography data. Data integrity and quality
were examined thoroughly by a methodologist (SH).