Abstract
Purpose: To investigate if i) the risk of ischemia on Myocardial Perfusion Scan (MPS) ii) number of coronary angiographies (CAG) performed iii) necessity for invasive (stent implantation or coronary artery by-pass grefting (CABG)) or medical treatment increased in patients infected with COVID-19.Methods:Patients who were referred to MPS between August 2020-April 2021 with a history of active symptomatic Covid-19 infection (confirmed by PCR positivity) in the last 6 months were involved in the study group. Age-and gender matched control group was composed of randomly chosen patients who attended for MPS between January 2019 – September 2019, before pandemic. Frequency of ischemia, CAG, invasive or medical treatments were compared between groups. Results:Ischemia was reported more frequently in the study group (p<0.001). In clinical evaluation, regardless of the MPS results, the necessity for invasive evaluation with CAG and treatment (either medical therapy or invasive interventions), was higher in the study group (p=0.006 and p=0.015). It was also true for patients with abnormal MPS results (p=0.008 and p=0.024) but not for the patients with ischemia (p=0.29 and p=0.06).Conclusion:There exists a significant increase in the frequency of ischemia on MPS, undergoing CAG, stent implantation or CABG and initiation of medical therapy in patients with a history of Covid-19 infection in the last 6 months. MPS is a reliable method in patients who present with cardiovascular symptoms in the late COVID period.