A new British study focused on knowing the effect of infection with the emerging corona virus on the heart.
The study showed that people hospitalized with COVID-19 may be more likely to develop heart damage, but not the type of inflammation suggested by previous research.
Early in the pandemic, several studies indicated that many COVID-19 survivors experienced heart damage even if they had no underlying heart disease and were not sick enough to be admitted to hospital. The new study, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, examined the nature and extent of heart damage and inflammation in the sickest people with Covid.
Researchers studied 342 patients with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 who had high levels of the protein troponin in 25 hospitals in the UK between June 2020 and March 2021.
Elevated levels of troponin in blood tests are a strong indicator of acute myocardial injury or heart attack. Doctors routinely check troponin levels in people hospitalized for COVID.
The researchers compared study participants to two control groups, one of 64 people hospitalized with COVID who had normal troponin levels, and a second group of 113 people of similar age, sex, and cardiovascular health but without COVID or with elevated troponin levels but who were not hospitalized. All patients in the hospital underwent an MRI scan within 28 days of discharge. Non-hospitalized participants also underwent magnetic resonance imaging.
The study found that 61% of people hospitalized with Covid who had high levels of troponin had heart abnormalities including scarring from a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart attack, or from a microinfarction, which the author described The principal of the study, John Greenwood, described it as “small areas of scarring”. This proportion was nearly double the ratio in hospitalized COVID-19 participants who had normal troponin (36%) and those without COVID who had normal troponin (31%).
But when it came to suspected myocarditis, a rare and sometimes fatal inflammation of the heart muscle caused by a viral infection, the researchers found that the prevalence rate was 6.7% in participants with corona with elevated troponin, compared to 1.7% in those without. Troponin elevation. This is much lower than what has been observed in previous studies, according to researcher Greenwood, a professor of cardiology at the Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research in England.
“Many small, previous studies have raised a lot of concern about myocarditis,” Greenwood said. “But this most rigorous national study of hospitalized patients with elevated troponin clearly shows that these patients do not have more viral myocarditis, but rather develop more viral myocarditis.” “This is really important information for clinicians who face the challenge of trying to understand why troponin levels are elevated so they can tailor appropriate treatment options.”
Greenwood and his colleagues plan to further study this group with repeat MRI scans after six months.
Dr. Tim Duong, a professor of radiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, who was not involved in the research, noted that the study began before COVID-19 vaccines were available.
“Overall, the vaccines will reduce the severity of the disease and reduce the imaging abnormalities reported in this study,” Duong said.
“These important findings from the study will raise awareness to improve monitoring of COVID-19 patients at risk of heart disease and enable timely treatment, if needed, to prevent further heart problems,” Duong said.
He called for long-term studies to better understand the impact of “long Covid” on the heart and other organs.
“Tens of millions of people have been sickened by COVID, and we believe it causes damage to multiple organs,” Duong said. “But, at this point, no one really knows the long-term effects. We need research that follows patients for many years so we can anticipate problems and treat them sooner.” Maybe”.
#Research #links #covid #heart #disease