INCREASE IN CORONARY SINUS RHYTHM IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AS POTENTIAL CORRELATE OF COVID-19 INFECTIONS

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted human life demonstrating also a substantial impact on cardiac diseases. In particular, some researchers have reported an increased incidence of cardiac arrhythmias in patients with COVID-19, emphasizing the need for further investigations. Accordingly, this study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias in university students before and after COVID-19, in order to better understand if this risk increased over time. Cross-sectional study conducted on students attending the University of Palermo from 2015 to 2024. For each subject demographic data, patient medical history information and information relating to vaccination against Sars-CoV-2 were recorded. Moreover, each visit was associated with the execution of a 12-lead ECG performed at rest in order to assess for alterations of the electrical heart rhythm. During the study period 1,217 patients were visited, including 401 (33%) males and 815 (67%) females. The median age at the visit was 20.40 years. Overall, we observed a statistically significant increase in the risk of coronary sinus rhythm and respiratory arrhythmia in subjects with a previous diagnosis of COVID-19 (OR=5.0, 95% CI=1.6-16.0 and OR=3.4, 95% CI= 2.4-4.8, respectively). This study is especially compelling as it focuses on an increased risk of respiratory arrhythmia and coronary sinus rhythm in young healthy subjects after the COVID-19 pandemics. If our results should be confirmed by other more extensive studies they could be relevant to clinicians since they should be aware of cardiac arrhythmias as one of the complications attributable to COVID-19 emergence.