Takeaway
- In student athletes who had COVID-19 with no or mild-moderate symptoms and normal serum values, cardiac MRI (CMRI) may offer limited screening utility.
- In this study, the prevalence of myocarditis in this population was 1.4%.
Why this matters
- Editorial: high cost and poor diagnostic yield suggest low utility of CMRI, and clinicians should use pretest probability of myocarditis as a factor in deciding to screen.
Key results
- Included 145 athletes, 37 female, age range 17-23 years.
- 81.4% had symptoms (49.0% mild, 27.6% moderate).
- 16.6% were asymptomatic (the rest were not documented).
- None had severe symptoms or chest radiography.
- CMRIs done a median of 15 (range, 11-194) days after positive COVID-19 test.
- 2 patients, or 1.4% (95% CI, 0.4%-4.9%), had abnormal findings.
- 1 was asymptomatic for COVID-19 but had “marked findings” of myopericarditis, improved at 1-month reevaluation.
- 1 had mild signal abnormalities after mild-moderate COVID-19 symptoms; abnormalities were resolved at 1 month.
- 26.2% had small nonspecific foci that did not meet criteria for myocarditis and are associated with athletic training.
- 2 had increased troponin I levels that stayed repeatedly elevated but no indicators of myocarditis.
Study design
- Case series, electronic health record data, University of Wisconsin, January 1-November 29, 2020.
- Funding: Not disclosed.
Limitations
- Retrospective, selected population of trained competitive athletes.
- Late CMRI, troponin testing could have missed earlier mild myocardial injury.
Only healthcare professionals with a Univadis account have access to this article.
You have reached your limit of complementary articles
Free Sign Up Available exclusively to healthcare professionals