The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become the most critical healthcare issue worldwide since the pandemic was announced in March 2020. Although respiratory symptoms remain the critical characteristic feature of COVID-19 (with acute respiratory syndrome as the leading cause of mortality), the disease also affects other organs. In fact, the involvement of the cardiovascular system during COVID-19 may include acute coronary symptoms, acute heart failure and myocarditis, arrhythmias, cardiac tamponade, pulmonary embolism, and right ventricular failure due to a high-pressure mechanical ventilation. It is vital to note that all of the abovementioned disorders require specific, pandemic-adapted imaging algorithms. This brief review aims to discuss different cardiac imaging modalities to demonstrate their effectiveness in managing patients in the acute phase of COVID-19.

Introduction: We recently identified the fetal noncanonical WNT receptor ROR2 as being re-expressed in human right ventricular failure (RVF), but the myocardial role of ROR2 remains poorly described. Hypothesis: We assessed if ROR2 expression influences cardiomyocyte structure or contributes to RVF pathogenesis. Methods: ROR2 gain- and loss-of-function (ROR2 GOF and ROR2 LOF ) NRVMs were generated using adenoviral-delivered ROR2 cDNA or shRNA and cultured on nanopatterned substrates. NRVM structure was assessed by confocal microscopy (minimum n=3 replicates, >30 cells/condition). NRVM gene expression was characterized by RNAseq. The impact of ROR2 on RV structure and function was assessed using AAV9-mediated cardiac ROR2 delivery, in 4-week old C57BL/6 mice (vs GFP), and echocardiography and hemodynamics (n= 8, 50% male). Results: ROR2 GOF disrupts non-sarcomeric and sarcomeric NRVM structure, exhibiting smaller (500 vs. 711 μm 2 , p = 7.4x10 -23 ) and rounder (aspect ratio 2.1 vs. 3.1, p=1.9x10 -16 ) shape and fragmented sarcomeres (Figure). Whereas, ROR2 LOF NRVMs demonstrate a striking peripheralization of α-actinin and β-catenin. Gene-set enrichment analyses of ROR2 GOF NRVMs reveal upregulation of cytokinesis, mitosis, microtubule regulation, and insulin like growth factor receptor signaling. By 4 weeks after induction of ROR2 GOF in vivo , mice exhibit biventricular dilation and systolic dysfunction (TAPSE 0.85 vs 1.2 mm, p = 2.1x10 -5 ; right ventricular outflow dimension 2.0 vs 1.7 mm, p = 0.001, LV EDV 33.5 vs 28.6 μL, p = 0.05; LV ejection fraction 63% vs 69%, p = 0.015). RV diastolic function is reduced in ROR2 GOF (E:e’ 21.8 vs 18.6, p = 0.004 and RV EDP 2.9 vs 1.0 mmHg, p = 0.06). Conclusions: ROR2 GOF causes biventricular dilation, systolic and diastolic dysfunction in vivo . In vitro, ROR2 GOF NRVMs exhibit an immaturity phenotype with maintenance of proliferation gene program. In contrast, ROR2 LOF NRVMs form a tight monolayer with enhanced cell-cell borders.

Liver dysfunction is common with COVID-19 infection, and the prevalence is higher in men as well as in the elderly. Manifestations of liver damage such as high aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase activity, increased bilirubin levels, low albumin levels, and prolonged prothrombin time are associated with severe COVID-19 infection. Mortality in patients with diffuse liver diseases without cirrhosis with COVID-19 infection was 12 %, in the presence of liver cirrhosis up to 40%, decompensated liver cirrhosis up to 4363%. The mechanisms of liver damage in COVID-19 include direct hepatotoxicity and indirect liver damage (due to systemic inflammation with impaired immunity, sepsis, hypoxia, ischemia, coagulopathy, endotheliitis, right ventricular failure, worsening of the course of existing liver diseases, drug liver damage). Treatment of patients with diffuse liver diseases includes lifestyle and nutritional modification, the use of hepatoprotective drugs, and means of correcting the intestinal barrier (bibliography: 30 refs).

AbstractDespite progressive improvements over the decades, the rich temporally resolved data in an echocardiogram remain underutilized. Human assessments reduce the complex patterns of cardiac wall motion, to a small list of measurements of heart function. All modern echocardiography artificial intelligence (AI) systems are similarly limited by design – automating measurements of the same reductionist metrics rather than utilizing the embedded wealth of data. This underutilization is most evident where clinical decision making is guided by subjective assessments of disease acuity. Predicting the likelihood of developing post-operative right ventricular failure (RV failure) in the setting of mechanical circulatory support is one such example. Here we describe a video AI system trained to predict post-operative RV failure using the full spatiotemporal density of information in pre-operative echocardiography. We achieve an AUC of 0.729, and show that this ML system significantly outperforms a team of human experts at the same task on independent evaluation.

In this work, a rather rare (morbidity of about 12 cases per 1 million of adult population per year) and interesting clinical case of the diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary artery hypertension (IPAH) was described. This case was also known as Ayerza disease or AyerzaArilago syndrome. At the initial stage, this pathology was characterized by an asymptomatic course that caused certain difficulties in making a correct diagnosis. In general, this disease had a poor prognosis. The main cause of death was decompensated right ventricular failure. The occurrence of complications could be significantly reduced and the life quality of such patients could be improved by the timely diagnosis and correct approach.