Recent research shows COVID-19 causes heart damage to more than half of patients studied [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• According to the latest significant study about COVID-19 patients, the infection can damage the heart, and researchers said the organ’s functioned abnormally to over 50% of the patients screened.
• The recent discoveries are substantial as they add to a mounting of signs that implies the virus also damages other organs other than the heart.
• The report said that irregularity could affect the patient’s recovery and survival from the virus.

Over fifty percent of the COVID-19 patients who got a heart scan in medical hospitals showed irregularities in their heart function, a major new study suggests.

The findings have added to more evidence that coronavirus leads to severe blood-clotting and damages other organs eventually.

Published in the European Heart Journal and sponsored by the British Heart Foundation, the research gathered data from 69 nations. It observed that 55% of 1,261 patients screened have irregular heart functions.

Out of those cases tested, nearly one out of seven patients have developed severe heart malfunctions, which can make their chances of survival or recovery slimmer than other people.

The study also discovered that 901 patients out of the total never had heart trouble before the diagnosis, which made the scholars conclude that COVID-19 is a significant factor in causing problems to the blood-pumping organ.

The scientists from the University of Edinburgh’s British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence stressed that the research was focused only on patients whom physicians believed, to begin with, had heart irregularities.

Earlier studies already suspected that the COVID-19 causes damage to the heart and other major bodily organs because of the unusual blood-clotting. The study may have found the possible reason why the mortality rate is higher for patients with underlying health conditions.

Experts said the heart is required to work double for those infected because the bug causes swelling and accumulation of fluid in the lungs, according to the Guardian. That puts the heart at risk to either damage or failure.

University of Edinburgh’s consultant cardiologist and professor Marc Dweck, who spearheaded the research,  said coronavirus is a disease that affects several parts of the body.

Several doctors have avoided performing echocardiograms for coronavirus patients since the procedure requires them to have close interaction with patients. This makes the screening important for treating COVID-19 patients.

Dweck further explained that while heart damage occurs in much severe flu, experts have yet to determine the extent of the harm, whether it’s permanent and what will be its effect in the long term.

Source: AOL