Undetected Signs of Early Heart Damage May Increase Death Risk Among COVID-19 Patients: Study | The Weather Channel – Articles from The Weather…

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Hospitalised COVID-19 patients are five times more likely to succumb to the deadly virus due to undetected signs of heart failure.

The new study has highlighted that COVID-19 patients with a first-phase ejection fraction of less than 25% had a nearly five-fold higher risk of death than those with an ejection fraction of 25% or higher.

The team also found that a similar proportion of people with the same risk factors who did not have COVID-19 had low values of first-phase ejection fraction. Therefore, this suggests that the damage to the heart may be caused due to chronic pre-existing conditions and was not the result of the COVID-19 infection.

"Traditionally, heart function is measured by ejection fraction, or how much blood the left ventricle pumps out with each contraction of the heart," said Phil Chowienczyk, Professor of cardiovascular clinical pharmacology at St Thomas' Hospital, in London.

"First-phase ejection fraction is a new measure of the heart's function that seems to be much more sensitive of early, undetected damage to the heart than traditional ejection fraction measures," he added. The findings are published in the journal Hypertension.

Cardiovascular risk factors and/or disease have been recognised as COVID-19 risk factors that have a high negative impact on patient outcomes, since early in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Researchers hypothesised that predisposition to heart failure would be associated with more severe cases among hospitalised patients.

The team analysed mortality rates for 129 hospitalised COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China, and 251 patients in South London, treated between February and May 2020.

"The findings suggest that if we can prevent the very early chronic damage to the heart detected using first-phase ejection fraction imaging, then people will be much more likely to survive respiratory infections like COVID-19. Healthy lifestyle choices, better treatments and adherence to treatments for high blood pressure and high cholesterol are also important," Chowienczyk noted.

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The above article has been published from a wire source with minimal modifications to the headline and text.

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Undetected Signs of Early Heart Damage May Increase Death Risk Among COVID-19 Patients: Study | The Weather Channel - Articles from The Weather...