Role of feature tracking cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in early detection of cardiac dysfunction in β-thalassemia patients recovered from COVID-19: A cross-sectional study.

Background and Aims: β-Thalassemia patients may have cardiac complications due to iron overload, which puts them at higher risk of cardiac complications induced by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) compared with the normal population. The present study aims to evaluate early cardiovascular complications following iron overload in β-thalassemia patients who had early recovery from COVID-19 by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and feature-tracking technique. Methods: Thirty-two confirmed COVID-19-recovered β-thalassemia cases were evaluated within 3 weeks to 3 months after a positive reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 test. Both the heart and liver of all patients were examined using cardiac MRI. Results: We analyzed 32 patients with mean age of 32.84 ± 6.45 years at baseline. Left ventricular global strain values were significantly associated with myocardial T2*. A cut-off value of -15.08% for global longitudinal strain (GLS) with sensitivity and specificity of 90% and 61.1% ( Conclusion: GLS, GRS, and GCS were significantly decreased in patients with myocardial T2* <20 ms (iron overload), while no significant change was observed in the right and left ventricular ejection fraction (RV- and LVEF). Cardiac MRI feature-tracking may be helpful in the early detection of cardiac complications resulting from iron overload in β-thalassemia patients who had early recovery from COVID-19.