What is the clinical evidence from this study?

Study design: Observational. Population: COVID-19 (n=249). Intervention: COVID-19. Primary outcome: Prevalence of relative bradycardia.

January 1, 2022Open Access

Relative bradycardia in patients with COVID-19

Key Result

In 249 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, the prevalence of relative bradycardia was 60.6%, which did not significantly affect clinical outcomes such as ICU admission or death.

Study Design

Type

Observational (n=249)

Multicenter

Structured PICO

Does relative bradycardia affect clinical outcomes in febrile patients with COVID-19?

Population

249 adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19, evaluated retrospectively to determine the prevalence of relative bradycardia and its association with clinical outcomes.

Exposure

Relative bradycardia (RB), defined as a rise in the heart rate from a basal heart rate of less than 10 beats/min/°C rise in temperature.

Comparator

General heart rate response (GHRR), defined as a pulse increase greater than 10 beats/min/°C.

Outcome

Clinical outcomes including pulmonary manifestation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and death during hospital stay.hard clinical

Relative bradycardia is a common clinical sign in COVID-19 patients (60.6% prevalence) but is not associated with worse clinical outcomes.

Limitations

Half of the patients received antipyretic medicines during hospitalization, which may have underestimated fever and the true prevalence of relative bradycardia.
The study was conducted in a tertiary hospital with many severe cases, potentially limiting generalizability to broader patient populations.
Relative bradycardia remains a poorly defined clinical term, and alternative definitions could significantly alter the results.

Abstract

Introduction: Relative bradycardia(RB) is a relatively low heart rate response to rise in body temperature that occurs in several infectious diseases and can be an important clinical sign. In previous case reports, RB was presented in some patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) COVID-19.

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