Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has been impacting worldwide and long-term complications are not clearly understood yet. The present study aimed to assess the presence and distribution of SARS-CoV-2 in lung and heart biopsies from patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG).
Methods and Materials: This observational cross-sectional study was conducted in Chamran hospital in Isfahan, Iran, between June 2021 and November 2021. The heart and lung biopsies were collected from previously documented infected patients with SARS-CoV-2 who underwent CABG. After the RNA extraction, RT-qPCR was performed against the RdRp (RNA-dependent RNA polymerase) region and the nucleocapsid protein N region using COVID-19 One-Step RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction) Kit (Pishtazteb, Iran). The analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Version 22. All The experimental data are shown as the mean ± standard deviation.
Findings: Ten patients (F/M: 3/7) were included in the study with a mean age of 60.4±5.3 years. All samples were positive for RNase P; therefore, they were included in the study. None of the biopsies were positive for SARS-CoV-2.
Conclusion: The absence of the virus in the examined samples suggests that, at least in some cases, the immune system may effectively clear the virus from these tissues. However, further research is needed to confirm these findings in larger and more diverse patient populations and explore the potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on the heart and lungs.
Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, Heart, Lung, PCR