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Aims Acute pericarditis is considered one of the cardiovascular complications of COVID-19. The published data suggest that the diagnosis of acute pericarditis in patients with COVID-19 infection may be more frequent than usually diagnosed and as a consequence, undertreated. The proposed investigation is a retrospective observational study in which 170 patients, admitted to an Intensive Care Unit because of a COVID-19 diagnosis, were analysed. All patients underwent cardiological evaluation including a bedside echocardiogram. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence and clinical implications of acute pericarditis diagnosed through the presence of pericardial effusion. Methods and results The proposed investigation is a retrospective observational study enrolling patients admitted to Intensive Care Unit of Madonna del Soccorso Hospital (San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy) because of a SARS-CoV-2 induced severe acute respiratory syndrome. No. 170 patients, admitted from 1 April 2020 to 30 April 2021, were enrolled. All patients presented a variable picture of bilateral interstitial pneumonia characterized by ground glass opacifications at HR-Chest CT. Some patients underwent oro-tracheal intubation and invasive ventilation. All patients underwent cardiological consultation including a transthoracic bedside echocardiogram, using ultrasound E9-GE machine (Boston, MA, USA). Demographic, laboratory and clinical data were collected for all enrolled patients (Table 1). The diagnosis of acute pericarditis was defined by: (i) different degree of pericardial effusion; (ii) C-reactive proteine elevation. All patients were divided in two groups: (1) pericarditis group (a); (2) pericarditis-free group (b). Of 170 enrolled patient, 51 were females (30%) and 119 were males (70%). Median age for all patients was 67.6 ± 13.3 [females: 70.5 (±16.2); males: 66.4 (±11.7)]. Of 170, n. 60 patients had a diagnosis of acute pericarditis (32.2%). Group A (patient with acute pericarditis) consisted of 60 patients, age 69.2 (±12.6), 39 (65%) male [age 69.3 (±10.6)], 21 (35%) female [age 69.1 (±16.0)]. Of 60, only 6 had a pericardial effusion >10 mm (10%); the remaining group A-patients (90%) had a mild pericardial effusion ( Conclusions Pericarditis is a frequent cardiovascular complication of COVID-19 (32.2% in our study). It may have clinical and prognostic implications.

Objectives Assessment of the prognostic role of left ventricular stiffness (LVS) in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Methods We performed a complete two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiographic study before and after TAVI in patients with severe AS at high surgical risk. In order to assess LVS, we measured LV end-diastolic pressure (EDP) invasively during TAVI and LV end-diastolic volume (EDV) by means of echocardiography. We defined LVS as the EDV indexed by body surface area at an EDP of 20 mm Hg (EDVI20). Our aim was to assess the impact of LVS on one-year all-cause mortality after TAVI. Results One hundred sixty-six patients undergoing TAVI (64% female; mean age 82.7 ± 5.1 years) were enrolled. Seven patients died within the first 30 days after TAVI and 21 within 1 year. Overall follow-up duration was 580 ± 478 days. At multivariate analysis, independent predictors of 1-year all-cause mortality were moderate-to-severe paravalvular leak (PVL; HR 4.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.9-11, P=.0003), female gender (HR 3.5, 95% CI 1.0-12, P=.045), and EDVI20 (HR 0.94, 95% CI 0.90-0.98, P=.015). In particular, patients with higher LVS (EDVI20≤48 mL/m2) had a 1-year mortality of 26.9% vs 7.4% in patients with lower LVS (EDVI20>48 mL/m2; HR 4.2, 95% CI 1.6-10.6, P=.0007). Patients with higher LVS who developed moderate-to-severe PVL had the worst outcome (incremental chi-square test, P=.014). Conclusion In patients with AS, an increased LVS has a negative prognostic impact. Development of significant PVL in patients with higher LVS had an incremental adverse effect.