Three Years of COVID-19 Pandemic—Is the Heart Skipping a Beat?

Abstract

In the context of new therapeutic protocols and vaccines developed in the past 3 years, coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) continues to exert an important impact on the healthcare systems worldwide. Age and a history of cardiovascular or respiratory diseases remain relevant in terms of prognosis for all COVID-19 patients, independent of the viral strain, by conveying a worse outcome and increased rates of in-hospital mortality. Previous studies reported heterogenous cardiovascular manifestations in COVID-19 patients from acute myocarditis or myopericarditis, acute coronary syndromes, stress cardiomyopathy, de novo arrhythmias to pulmonary embolism, or in some rare cases, endocarditis. In this review, we assessed the potential acute, in-hospital and long-term cardiac complications in patients diagnosed with COVID-19.

Keywords

• COVID-19 cardiovascular complications
• myocardial injury
• long–COVID