Cases of myocardial infarction increase in patients with Covid 19 due to an increase in the instability of atherosclerotic plaques, coronary thrombosis or myocardial damage, even in the absence of narrowing of the arteries.
Sars-Cov-2 is capable of damaging the internal endothelium of the vessels.
In addition, it can cause myocarditis in at least 7% of patients.
In 78% of the recovered, structural cardiac alterations of various kinds are found, with signs similar to those left by a heart attack.
All of this suggests that the virus can leave a "legacy" on cardiovascular function and sometimes compromise it with permanent damage to the heart.
Covid-19 thus confirms itself as a 'multi-organ killer' and even the heart pays for it: there are more and more studies that report heart damage as a result of the SARS-CoV-2 infection and one in 5 is infected to cardiovascular consequences.
Damage to the endothelium of blood vessels, increased instability of atherosclerotic plaques, myocardial damage, increased cardiac inflammation and the appearance of structural alterations similar to those caused by a heart attack, present in a large proportion of cases, suggest that Covid infection could leave consequences, even in the long term, on cardiovascular function, with an increased risk of heart attack or stroke, especially in patients who have come out of intensive care.
A worrying scenario that emerges from a symposium on the occasion of the national congress of the Italian Society of Cardiology.
"The first data from the studies in recent months indicate that SARS-CoV-2 can also have serious repercussions, not only in the short term, on recovered patients, especially if they come out of intensive care - explains Ciro Indolfi, SIC President - An increasing number of reports indicate the appearance of cardiovascular damage even in recovered patients who did not have cardiovascular disorders before the infection.
Patients' hearts are therefore more fragile during the disease but can remain so even afterwards: it has been reported, for example, that Covid-19 it can cause myocarditis in at least 7% of patients who did not have any heart disease before the infection, and over time this cardiac inflammation can affect organ function ".
(HANDLE).