COVID-19 Suspected to Damage Not Only Lungs but Also the 'Heart'... Ongoing Reports from the Academic Community

Youngest Suspected Death Case in US Also Due to Heart Attack
Virus May Directly Attack Heart or Cause Immune Overreaction

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Academic reports have emerged suggesting that the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) may cause not only respiratory issues such as pneumonia but also heart diseases.

According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 29th (local time), cases of heart abnormalities caused by the coronavirus are being reported one after another. Recently, a patient exhibiting severe heart attack symptoms arrived at a hospital in Brooklyn, New York City, USA. Abnormal signs were detected on the patient's electrocardiogram, and the blood troponin level, which indicates the extent of heart muscle damage, was also elevated. However, the cause was not a heart attack but myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart muscle) caused by the coronavirus.

Earlier, on the 27th, a research team led by Zhibing Lu from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in China published a paper in the journal JAMA Cardiology, reporting that 20% of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at the hospital showed heart abnormalities. Most of these patients had no underlying heart disease but exhibited abnormal electrocardiograms and elevated blood troponin levels. The same journal also published a study by Italian medical staff on patients who showed similar symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19.

Recently, a 17-year-old boy, initially known as the "youngest COVID-19 death in the United States," who is now under re-investigation by U.S. health authorities regarding the cause of death, also died after showing heart attack symptoms.

Experts have proposed the hypothesis that the COVID-19 virus might directly attack the heart, along with the possibility that the body's immune system overreacted to the virus, causing heart damage.

The immune response hypothesis suggests that during the fight against the virus, cytokines?immune substances in the body?are excessively released and attack normal cells distributed in the heart. This is known as a "cytokine storm." Cytokines also promote blood clotting, which can cause thrombosis in the coronary arteries, blocking blood flow and potentially triggering a heart attack.

The NYT explained that as cases of heart disease caused by COVID-19 increase, cardiologists are facing difficulties. They are confronted with issues such as whether to conduct COVID-19 tests first when diagnosing patients showing heart attack symptoms and whether to measure blood troponin levels in all COVID-19 patients.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.