COVID-19 is still lingering in the hearts of the recovered patients for months without developing any symptoms, according to medical experts. According to NBC News' latest report, the novel coronavirus may still have lasting effects on the heart health of the patients, which may go undetected, leading people to assume that they have recovered from the deadly disease.
78% of COVID-19 patients show signs of heart damage after recovery https://t.co/RzCNjduZFL pic.twitter.com/LWAAFjJIod — Andy Vermaut (@AndyVermaut) July 28, 2020
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The Journal JAMA published two studies on July 28, revealing the viral disease can stay inside the heart for months, even without producing symptoms. The published report stated that 100 coronavirus patients from the University Hospital Frankfurt COVID-19 Registry were included in the first study.
Most of the infected individuals were healthy adults age 40 and 50 years old. Many of the patients, who seemed to have fully recovered from the viral disease, had MRIs of their hearts two to three months after they were diagnosed with the coronavirus. For more updates of COVID-19 and other deadly diseases, check the latest news at TechTimes. Also, can 3D-printed human organs be used to fight off coronavirus? Find out now.
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The images of the recovered patients' hearts were compared to those who never got infected by COVID-19. Out of the 100 patients, 78 showed that the novel coronavirus impacted their hearts. 60 of those patients developed symptoms of ongoing inflammation of the heart muscle.
"That's really compelling," said the chief of cardiology in the department of medicine at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Dr. Clyde Yancy.
"It indicates that months after exposure to COVID-19, we can still detect evidence of a heart that's not completely normal," he added.
Scientists discovered that COVID-19 can replicate in the heart tissue
The authors of the study explained that there are no pre-existing conditions, which could explain the heart damage of the recovered patients. The report confirmed that only a third of the patients were hospitalized, while the remaining stayed at home throughout the course of their illness.
In India, recovered Covid-19 patients are returning to hospitals with heart problems or lung damage pic.twitter.com/Nqxk4t2rF8 — Md Dilshad Ali (@Maximus_208) July 22, 2020
"Our findings may provide an indication of the potentially considerable burden of inflammatory disease in large and growing parts of the population," wrote the study authors.
39 autopsies of the patients who died from the virus were observed in the second study. The researchers found evidence of COVID-19 in the heart tissue in 24 of the 39 patients, mostly in their 80s. It was also discovered that five of those patients developed signs that the virus is actually multiplying in the heart tissue.
Dr. Matthew Belford, an interventional cardiologist at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said that there is evidence showing that COVID-19 can also penetrate inside the heart, causing an inflammatory response--this making medical experts wonder.
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Written by: Giuliano de Leon.
