About 50 percent of patients who have been admitted to hospital with severe COVID-19 and elevated troponin protein levels have heart damage. This is reported in an article by scientists from University College London, published in the European Heart Journal. The research is summarized in a press release on MedicalXpress.
Specialists studied the condition of patients who recovered from coronavirus infection, discharged from six hospitals before July 2020. Those with abnormally high troponin levels underwent cardiac MRI. The results were compared with control patients who did not have COVID-19, as well as 40 healthy volunteers.
It turned out that seriously ill patients very often had damage to the heart muscle, which could be recognized on the images 1-2 months after discharge. At the same time, the nature of heart injuries was not the same, which indicates that the cardiovascular system is susceptible to various types of influences from the virus.
Left ventricular function, which is responsible for pumping oxygenated blood to all parts of the body, was normal in 89 percent of 148 patients, although scarring or other damage to the heart muscle was present in 80 patients (54 percent). Scars and lesions were caused by either inflammation in 39 patients (26 percent), coronary artery disease in 32 patients (22 percent), or both in nine patients (six percent). In 12 patients (eight percent), inflammation was still ongoing.
According to scientists, in some cases, damage can significantly increase the risk of heart failure in the future. In most cases, the impact on the heart did not lead to an immediate deterioration of its functions, which makes it possible to protect the cardiovascular system from possible consequences.