Although lung injury leading to acute severe respiratory failure is the most feared clinical presentation of COVID-19, cardiac complications in patients without underlying heart disease also could be a feature of the syndrome and range from 20% to 30%.

 Right ventricular (RV) dysfunction (RVD) seems to be particularly common (20%-39%) in the COVID-19 patient group and often remains undiagnosed.

 RVD is present when the functional and structural variables to quantify RV function are less than the lower value of the normal range: RV fractional area change <35%, RV ejection fraction <45%, tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion <17 mm, and pulsed-Doppler S wave <9.5 cm/s. RV fractional area change has been used to classify the degree of RVD as mild (25%-35%), moderate (18%-25%), and severe (<18%).