心Risks Rise in People With Long COVID

By Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter

Having the lingering symptoms known as long COVID after aCOVID-19infection more than doubles the risk of developing newheart symptoms, according to new research.

“COVID-19is more than a simple respiratory disease — it is a syndrome that can affect theheart,” said lead study author Joanna Lee, a medical student at David Tvildiani Medical University in the country of Georgia and a member of the Global Remote Research Scholars Program.

Researchers from the scholars program reviewed 11 major studies involving a total of 5.8 million people to examine cardiovascular complications from long COVID.

evidenc一致e showed that people with long COVID were significantly more likely than those who never hadCOVID-19to experience symptoms associated withheartproblems. These includedchest pain,shortness of breath,palpitationsandfatigue, the research team noted.

These individuals were also more likely to show markers ofheart diseaseor elevated cardiovascular risk in medical imaging and diagnostic tests.

“Clinicians should be aware that cardiac complications can exist and investigate further if a patient complains of these symptoms, even a long time after contractingCOVID-19,” Lee said in a news release from the American College of Cardiology.

“For patients, if you hadCOVID-19and you continue to have difficultybreathingor any kind of new heart problems, you should go to the doctor and get it checked out,” Lee said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control andPreventionestimates that nearly one in five U.S. adults who has hadCOVID-19ended up with lingering symptoms.

For this study, the researchers defined long COVID as symptoms persisting for at least four weeks and occurring at least two months after the initial COVID-19 infection. Although patients with pre-existingcardiovascular diseasewere included in the samples, their symptoms were only counted as cardiovascular complications of long COVID if they emerged after the COVID-19 infection.

To study this, the investigators identified 11 studies published between 2020 and 2022 that had cardiovascular data on people with long COVID plus a control group of people who never had COVID-19.

一个lmost 450,000 of the people in those studies experienced cardiac complications. The rate of cardiac complications for those with long COVID was 2.3 to 2.5 times higher compared with those in the control group.

“Coordinated efforts among primary care providers, emergency room staff and cardiologists could help with early detection and mitigation of cardiac complications among long COVID patients,” Lee said.

The findings are scheduled for presentation March 6 in New Orleans at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology and the World Heart Federation. Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

更多的信息

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control andPreventionhas more on long COVID.

SOURCE: American College of Cardiology, news release, Feb. 23, 2023

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