Though uncommon, cases of new heart failure include younger COVID-19 patients with no history of cardiovascular disease or risk factors
FRIDAY, May 14, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 may be at risk for developing new heart failure, according to a research letter published in the May 4 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Jesus Alvarez Garcia, M.D., Ph.D., from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues used data from 6,439 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 from Feb. 27 to June 26, 2020, with follow-up until Oct. 7, 2020. The point prevalence and associated outcomes of new heart failure diagnoses were evaluated.
The researchers found that 0.6 percent of hospitalized patients had new heart failure and 6.6 percent had a history of heart failure. Of the 37 new heart failure patients, 13 presented with shock (four cardiogenic, six septic, three mixed), and five presented with acute coronary syndrome. Eight of these patients had neither cardiovascular disease (CVD) nor risk factors for CVD, while 14 had a history of CVD and 15 had at least one risk factor. The eight patients with neither CVD nor risk factors had a similar length of stay but had more frequent intensive care and intubation requirements and lower in-hospital mortality versus new heart failure patients with CVD or risk factors, despite more frequent presentation of cardiogenic shock and acute coronary syndrome.
“Although the point prevalence of new heart failure is low, a distinct cohort of younger patients without cardiovascular risk factors or disease experience new heart failure that may indeed be related to COVID-19,” the authors write.
One author disclosed financial ties to the medical device industry.
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