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COVID-19: The disease can affect the heart, even without any symptoms!
After recovering from the illness, several people have reported experiencing persistent breathing problems. The virus is believed to leave “lung scars”. The sequelae also affect the heart unfortunately. But in recent weeks, some people have developed heart damage, despite never having developed any symptoms of COVID-19. An observation that worries the medical community ...
The phenomenon also explains why sports leagues act with extreme caution, especially across the Atlantic. Imagine: top athletes, sick who ignore each other, with damaged hearts, who continue to practice their activity intensively. University and professional leagues fear that their players will collapse one after the other ...
Young athletes in danger
Very early on, it was found that the coronavirus could cause heart damage even in people without any pre-existing cardiovascular problems, and even in patients without symptoms of respiratory distress. At the end of July, a study conducted by German researchers reported that 78% of recent COVID-19 patients had cardiac involvement.
In addition, 60% of them suffered from continuous inflammation of the myocardium. Scientists specify that these consequences are independent of pre-existing conditions, the severity and the course of the disease (only a third of the subjects had to be hospitalized). As they point out, these results indicate that continued investigation into the long-term cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19 is more than needed. One of the authors, Elike Nagel, added: "I personally believe that COVID will increase the incidence of heart failure over the next decades."
In the United States, as elsewhere, “sudden” heart disease is not uncommon. Especially among young athletes. Brady Feeney, an Indiana University football player, was recently a victim of the virus: in perfect health and excellent physical condition, he quickly suffered from respiratory problems and is now facing complications. cardiac. Sedrick Williams, of the University of Houston, diagnosed positive in July, said on Aug. 10 he was withdrawing from the season due to heart complications as well. A decision motivated by the sudden death of basketball player Michael Ojo, 27, struck down by a heart attack during training three days previously; the young man was reportedly infected with the coronavirus in July.
Boston Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez recently said he "feels like he's 100 years old." Following his battle with COVID-19, he now suffers from myocarditis and had to end his baseball season. In total, according to the American media ESPN, more than a dozen athletes from the universities of the Power Five conferences have been identified as suffering from myocardial damage following a coronavirus infection. Two of these university groups have already postponed all competitions to 2021.
This explosion of heart disease is scary and the various sports leagues are now walking on eggshells. Although it can go away without causing other complications, myocarditis can also lead to abnormal heart rhythms, chronic heart failure, and even sudden death. However, several studies suggest that patients with COVID-19 show signs of the disease months after contracting the virus. Ultimately, the long-term impact of COVID-related myocarditis, including the majority of mild cases, remains unknown.
An undeniable impact on the heart muscle
A study (not peer-reviewed to date) involving 139 healthcare workers recovering from coronavirus infection, found that around 10 weeks after their first symptoms, 37% of them were diagnosed with myocarditis or myopericarditis. However, less than half of them had presented symptoms during their first analyzes.
As explained in this report, myocarditis can result from direct infection from the virus attacking the heart, or from inflammation triggered by the body's overly aggressive immune response (cytokine storm). In addition, it turns out that it is not necessarily related to age: doctors recently shared the case of an 11-year-old child with multisystem inflammatory syndrome linked to COVID-19, who died of heart failure one day after admission to hospital. The autopsy revealed the presence of coronavirus particles in the child's heart tissue, confirming that the virus is directly responsible for his death.
Likewise, a recent study published on medRxiv reports the presence of viral proteins in the heart muscle of six patients who died of respiratory failure. They had no history of heart disease and showed no signs of a heart attack when they contracted the disease.
Doctors are constantly encountering cases of sudden onset of heart disease, especially among young adults. Ossama Samuel, deputy head of cardiology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, evokes, for example, the case of a patient who developed myocarditis four weeks after having initially recovered from the infection; treated with steroids, the inflammation then returned as pericarditis. Another patient, in his forties and rather athletic, now presents with recurrent heart rhythm disturbances, disturbing enough that he carries a defibrillator with him at all times; an MRI showed fibrosis and scarring in her heart muscle.
These disorders are all the more worrying as the diagnosis is not always easy to make. Myocarditis is expressed most of the time by shortness of breath, chest pain, fever, fatigue. But some people do not have any of these symptoms! As it stands, due to the risk of severe arrhythmia and sudden death, Professor Samuel urges athletes with COVID-related myocarditis not to play competitive sports for at least three to six months .
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