# Analysis of arrhythmia and its risk factors in patients with COVID-19

**Authors:** Wenzhao Guan, Meihua Liu, Shuling Rong, Tianpei Liu, Xiaolin Wang

PMC · DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0336370 · 2025-11-25

## TL;DR

This study found that certain factors like heart rate and blood markers are linked to arrhythmia in patients with COVID-19.

## Contribution

Identified specific risk factors for arrhythmia in COVID-19 patients using multivariate logistic regression and ROC analysis.

## Key findings

- Patients with arrhythmia had significant differences in heart rate, blood markers, and imaging parameters compared to those without arrhythmia.
- Heart rate, PT, hs-TnI, ESV, serum potassium, blood glucose, and diabetes were identified as risk factors for arrhythmia in COVID-19 patients.
- The regression model showed a moderate predictive accuracy with an AUC of 0.773 for arrhythmia in these patients.

## Abstract

To investigate the incidence of arrhythmia in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and analyze its risk factors.

This was a retrospective cross-sectional study that surveyed 324 COVID-19 patients admitted to the Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University from 2020 to 2022. General data, vital signs, myocardial enzyme and imaging data of the patients were collected. The characteristics of COVID-19 patients with arrhythmia were analysed, and multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors for arrhythmia in patients. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to evaluate the efficacy of the regression equation in predicting arrhythmia in COVID-19 patients.

Compared with COVID-19 patients without arrhythmia, those with arrhythmia were found to have significant differences in heart rate, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), blood glucose, uric acid, serum potassium, serum total cholesterol, high-sensitivity troponin I (hs-TnI), N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), aortic root diameter, left atrial diameter (LAD), left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), fractional shortening (FS), end-systolic volume (ESV), and diabetes (all P < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that heart rate, PT, hs-TnI, ESV, serum potassium, blood glucose and diabetes were risk factors for arrhythmia in COVID-19 patients (all P < 0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.773 (95%CI: 0.711-0.834, P < 0.001).

Heart rate, PT, hs-TnI, ESV, serum potassium, blood glucose and diabetes are risk factors for arrhythmia in COVID-19 patients.

## Linked entities

- **Diseases:** coronavirus disease 2019 (MONDO:0100096), arrhythmia (MONDO:0007263), diabetes (MONDO:0005015)

## Full-text entities

- **Diseases:** diabetes (MESH:D003920), arrhythmia (MESH:D001145), COVID-19 (MESH:D000086382)
- **Chemicals:** uric acid (MESH:D014527), potassium (MESH:D011188), cholesterol (MESH:D002784), glucose (MESH:D005947)
- **Species:** Homo sapiens (human, species) [taxon 9606]

## Figures

4 figures with captions in the complete paper: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12646396/full.md

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12646396