SARS-CoV-2 and electrocardiography: is electrocardiography a predictor of mortality? —Authors’ reply

We appreciate the interest of Babayi ğitet al. in our study assessing the relation of the electrocardiogram (ECG) with clinical outcome in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.1 They make some critical observations to our article, concluding that the reported association of ECG abnormalities with mortality in these patients is in fact doubtful.2 It seems, however, that Babayi ğitet al. failed to catch the substance of our study. As already detectable from the title, we aimed to assess whether the presence of abnormal findings at the ECG recorded at presentation in the emergency room (ER) identified patients with increased risk of a negative outcome, independently of their causes. According to the results, the key message of our study is that SARS-Cov-2 infected patients showing abnormal ECG findings at presentation should prompt particular attention due to their increased risk of adverse outcome.1 Certainly, the causes of ECG abnormalities are heterogeneous in these patients and the attending physicians should obviously identify them and, if correctable, implement adequate interventions. However, this is a different problem and how it would impact on the outcome was beyond the scope of our article and would require a much larger population of patients.

Source: Europace - June 2, 2021 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research