Cardiovascular complications of COVID-19

Abstract

Background. The problem of COVID-19 today is the most unresolved worldwide. Scientists and doctors all over the world are trying to study features of pathogenesis this disease to find the most effective treatment methods. Multiple organ complications COVID-19 lead to death and disability of patients. The disease manifests itself with symptoms of damage to the pulmonary system with subsequent damage other systems and organs. Considering that cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death worldwide, it is necessary to study the features of flow COVID-19 against the background of existing cardiovascular pathology. Purpose – the purpose of the study was to analyze and summarize literature sources, which are devoted to the study of damage to the cardiovascular system as a result of COVID-19 affection. Materials and Methods. Publications were selected using keywords in PubMed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) and Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/) databases published over the period from 2020 to 2022. Results. The article analyzes the existing data of meta-analyzes regarding the incidence of cardiovascular disease, the effect of diabetes mellitus on the course of the disease, existing theories of the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease in COVID-19. Clinical variants of heart damage in COVID-19 are also given, which are described in the literature today. Particular attention is paid to the peculiarities of development and the course of postcoid myocarditis, which is one of the most common complications of COVID-19 on the part of the cardiovascular system. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that according to the literature, some patients were diagnosed with myocarditis without clinical manifestations. Therefore, the data of histological examination of the myocardium of COVID-19 patients without myocarditis symptoms are of great interest. Difficulties also arise at the stage of diagnosing myocarditis, because the currently accepted methods are sometimes uninformative. Mass vaccination against COVID-19, unfortunately, also had such undesirable side effects as post-injection myocarditis. The literature data on the development of dilated cardiomyopathy after suffering from COVID-19 are presented. At the same time, dilated cardiomyopathy can be the result not only of the transferred myocarditis, but also a primary reaction to the effect of cytokines released by the virus. Conclusions. COVID-19 can exacerbate pre-existing cardiovascular pathology and provoke acute myocardial injury, deteriorating the course of the disease and the life prognosis for the patient.