COVID-19 causes more heart damage than previously thought, according to new findings highlighted by the American Heart Association.
Injury to the heart and inflammation of the vascular system and occurs in 20 to 30 percent of all hospital COVID patients, with the heartbeat resulting in 40 percent of COVID deaths, the AHA said.
The risk of dying from COVID-related heart damage seems to be as important as other risk factors for COVID deaths, such as age, diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease or previous history of cardiovascular disease, the AHA noted.
“Much remains to be learned about COVID-19 infection and the heart,” said Mitchell SV Elkind, president of the American Heart Association. “Although we think the lungs are the primary target, there are often biomarker increases observed in infected patients that are most commonly associated with acute heartbeat.
In addition, several devastating complications of COVID-19 are cardiac in nature and can result in prolonged cardiac dysfunction beyond the course of the viral disease itself.
“The need for additional research remains critical. We just do not have enough information to give the definitive answers that people want and need. ”
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