Heart failure in COVID-19 pandemic: Challenging management issues

Abstract

Over these 12 months of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the patients of heart failure (HF) showed higher risk of severe disease and increased mortality. Their evaluation and treatment when additionally affected with COVID-19 posed many new challenges, as one condition can potentiate the other and there is considerable overlap of their presenting features. The pandemic also impacted the existing health care systems with changed priorities. Known HF patients becoming worse after acquiring the COVID-19 infection or the new development of acute cardiac complications in persons without any prior heart disease- both are novel therapeutic issues which have no perfect answers for want of adequate data and randomised trials. Newer suggestions are emerging in the management of HF with concomitant COVID-19 from experience from various sources. We have to keep our minds open and learn every day.

Keywords

• heart failure
• coronavirus
• covid-19
• management
• sars-cov-2