In a new study, researchers found COVID-19 patients with heart disease risk factors are more likely to develop heart complications while hospitalized, and more likely to die from COVID-19 infection.
The research was conducted by a team at Universita degli Studi Magna Graecia di Catanzaro, Italy.
For most people, the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) causes mild illness, however, it can generate severe pneumonia and lead to death in others.
It is crucial for clinicians working with heart patients to understand the clinical presentation and risk factors for COVID-19 infection in this group.
In the new study, researchers analyzed data from 21 published observational studies on a total of 77,317 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Asia, Europe, and the United States.
At the time they were admitted to the hospital, 12.89% of the patients had heart comorbidities, 36.08% had high blood pressure and 19.45% had diabetes.
Cardiovascular complications were documented during the hospital stay of 14.09% of the COVID-19 patients.
The most common of these complications were arrhythmias or palpitations; significant numbers of patients also had a myocardial injury.
When the researchers analyzed the data, they found that pre-existing heart risk factors were big predictors of cardiovascular complications, but age and gender were not.
Both age and pre-existing cardiovascular comorbidities or risk factors were big predictors of death.
The team says heart complications are frequent among COVID-19 patients and might contribute to adverse clinical events and mortality.
One author of the study is Jolanda Sabatino.
The study is published in PLOS ONE.
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