New studies from Germany revealed cardiac inflammation in recovered coronavirus patients and the presence of virus in the hearts of those who died from the disease.
Both studies called for new research into the long-term cardiac consequences of COVID-19.
An observational study involved 100 patients with recent COVID-19 disease. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) revealed cardiac involvement in 78 patients and inflammation of the heart muscle in 60 patients, regardless of pre-existing conditions.
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The patients were identified in the COVID-19 Register of the University Hospital of Frankfurt from April to June. The researchers said 33 patients were seriously ill and needed hospitalization, while two of the patients underwent mechanical ventilation.
Detectable levels of troponin, a type of protein found in the heart muscles, were detected in 71 patients, and high levels (indicating heart damage) were found in five patients. Biopsies of heart muscle tissue in patients with “serious findings” showed active inflammation, the study authors said.
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In a second autopsy study of 39 cases of COVID-19, researchers found a presence of viral infection within the myocardium or the middle muscle layer of the heart in 24 patients.
The deceased patients were autopsied at the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Hamburg-Eppendorf University Medical Center from April 8 to 18.
The median age of the patients was 85 years, and pneumonia was listed as the cause of death for 90 percent of them. The study authors said current data shows that the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in heart tissue does not necessarily cause an inflammatory reaction consistent with clinical myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart muscle).
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