Everyone wants to be
a COVID-19 expert.
Some say
Sweden did
everything right.
Some say
HCQ does not work.
Some say
lockdowns
were dumb.
Some say masks
cause disease !
The pandemic
is still in progress,
so there are
no experts yet.
We do know that
the virus can leave
permanent lung
damage.
That's obvious.
Fortunately, people
can live a long life
without two perfect
lungs.
Small studies
are now showing
some damage
to other organs.
Even to COVID victims
that were never in
the intensive care unit.
University Hospital
Frankfurt looked
at the cardiovascular
MRIs of 100 people
who had recovered
from the coronavirus,
and compared them
with heart images
of people who
hadn’t been infected.
Most of the patients
hadn’t been hospitalized,
and recovered at home,
with symptoms ranging
from none to moderate.
Two months after
recovering from
COVID-19:
78% of them had
structural changes
to the heart,
while 76% had
evidence of a
biomarker signaling
cardiac injury,
typically found
after a heart attack,
and 60% had signs
of inflammation.
The Puntmann study
was based in Germany,
and the average age
of cases was 49.
These findings
don’t tell us
what’s happening
in the roughly 45%
of cases which are
asymptomatic.
Nor do they apply
to severe ICU cases,
or people under 18.
Another study
by Lindner et al
looked at
39 autopsies
of Covid cases
and found 60%
had viral RNA
in their heart
tissue.
So there is
early evidence
that COVID-19
can leave
permanent
negative
changes
to the lungs
... and the heart.
REFERENCES
Clyde W. Yancy, MD, MS
Gregg C. Fonarow, MD
(2020)
Coronavirus Disease 2019
(COVID-19) and the Heart
—Is Heart Failure the Next Chapter?,
JAMA Cardiol.
Published online July 27, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2020.3575
Lindner D, Fitzek A,
Bräuninger H, et al.
(2020)
Association of cardiac infection
with SARS-CoV-2 in confirmed
COVID-19 autopsy cases.
JAMA Cardiol.
Published online July 27, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2020.3551
Puntmann VO, Carerj ML,
Wieters I, et al.
(2020)
Outcomes of cardiovascular
magnetic resonance in patients
recently recovered from
coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
JAMA Cardiol.
Published online July 27, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2020.3557