COVID-19 associated changes in the right departments of the heart in the elderly people

Abstract. Purpose of the work: to study the indicators characterizing heart lesions in elderly patients who had carried COVID-19. Materials and methods: 86 patients older than 60 years old, were examined, of whom 56 (32 women and 24 men) who have carried COVID-19 between 3 and 6 months before the study, and 30 patients (12 men and 18 women) who did not have COVID - 19 in the anamnesis. The patients have been examined clinically, electro and echocardiography have been performed. The results. Elderly patients during the post-covid period have complaints of shortness of breath, pain in the heart, swelling, coughing, weakness, which are more stable and intense than before the infection. Patients who have carried COVID-19 demonstrate the signs of a chronic pulmonary heart disease: increase in the size of a right ventricle and decrease of its contractile ability, increase in pressure in a pulmonary artery. Signs of a statistically significant moderate decrease of the contractility in the left ventricular were also identified. Conclusions. The statistically significant changes in the right departments of the heart among the patients with carried COVID-19 with persistent symptoms after infection were defined. Patients who have carried COVID-19 but have no symptoms did not differ statistically from the control group. Key words: COVID-19, old age, post- COVID period, right departments of the heart.