The hearts collected from nearly two dozen patients who died of coronavirus at University Medical Center are offering clues to LSU researchers about how the disease affects vital organs, according to new research published Tuesday in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association.
When the researchers began examining the 22 hearts, they hoped to find evidence of cardiac inflammation that contributed to the patients’ death.
Inflammation of the heart is a factor leading to death in other flu-like illnesses, and is often the leading cause of death. In early research on COVID-19, there was evidence from China that inflammation of the heart could be a major factor in why people died of the disease, according to Dr. Richard Vander Heide, a cardiac pathologist at LSU Health New Orleans. .
But the hearts of New Orleans patients suggested otherwise.
“There was no significant myocarditis in these patients,” said Vander Heide, referring to the particular type of inflammation under study.
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Instead of inflammation, the researchers were surprised to find dead cells scattered in the heart muscles. And unlike other types of coronavirus infections like SARS, in the 22 patients the LSU researchers studied, there was no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 within heart muscle cells or blood clots in the coronary arteries.
The researchers don’t know why that’s the case, but they nevertheless challenge some earlier assumptions about how the coronavirus attacks the body.
The heart still shows signs of dysfunction, but it may be the result of the heart having to work harder to bring blood to an injured lung, said Dr. Jay Kolls, a researcher who studies infection and inflammation at the University School of Medicine. de Tulane, and who was not involved in the study.
(The injured lung) is stiff, so the heart has to pump harder, “Kolls said.
The research builds on a previous study by the authors of the lungs of 10 of the patients whose hearts were used in this latest study. That study, published in The Lancet, found that tiny clots in the tiny vessels lining each patient’s lungs contributed to their death.
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The 22 hearts were donated by the families of 10 male and 12 female patients aged between 44 and 79 years. Nineteen were black, one was Asian, one Hispanic and one white. About half were obese and the other half had type 2 diabetes. Most had been treated for high blood pressure.
The research is part of a larger effort to create a database of organ tissues affected by coronavirus. LSU Health New Orleans is collecting tissue from patients requested by researchers across the country, Vander Heide said. Because New Orleans was an access point for the virus, they were able to complete autopsies earlier than most other cities.
“Hopefully we can use our tissue database to help other researchers, doctors, and people around the world to help us better understand and treat this disease,” said Vander Heide. “It doesn’t look like any other virus that’s been reported. It has some very unique characteristics that we’re still discovering and trying to understand.”
When the first case of coronavirus was diagnosed in Louisiana on March 9, doctors had little information about a disease that would soon threaten …
Emily Woodruff Covers Public Health for The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate as a member of the Report For America Corps.
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