Frequency of pericardial effusion on COVID-19 patients in Rasht, Iran

Pericardial involvement is a rare extra-pulmonary manifestation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study aimed to determine the frequency of pericardial effusion (PE) on patients with COVID-19. In this cross-sectional study, 582 patients with COVID-19 were investigated between March and May, 2020. Using high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT), patterns of pulmonary involvement and existence of PE were evaluated by a team including a radiologist, an emergency medicine specialist and a cardiologist. Other information such as laboratory tests, clinical symptoms, underlying comorbidities and a history of contact with COVID-19 patients was extracted from the patient’s records. A total of 582 COVID-19 cases were investigated, of which 350 (60.14%) cases were women and 232 (39.86%) cases were men. Mean age of patients was 60.38±16.12 years. The most common symptoms were cough (58.93%), myalgia (52.74%), sweating (49.31%) and fever (44.32%). Among 582 COVID-19 patients, 2.7% (16 cases) had PE (95% CI; -4.5-1.6). Furthermore, 81% of the patients had mild PE (95% CI; 1.57-3.89). Also, 92% of the patients with PE had underlying comorbidities. By comparison, 74.5% of the patients without PE had comorbidities (P=0.047). There was no significant difference in the pattern of pulmonary involvement between the patients with PE and without PE (P>0.05). Prevalence of PE in COVID-19 patients is low. Underlying comorbidities, respectively, HTN and DM and ischemic heart diseases play an important role in occurrence of PE in COVID-19 patients. Our study revealed that it is not necessary for all patients to undergo an echocardiography.