People with “long COVID” may have suffered heart damage if they are still struggling to breathe during exercise a year on, researchers warn. Medical scans show patients who experience breathlessness a year after leaving hospital are more likely to experience cardiovascular problems, even if they never have before.
There is increasing evidence that coronavirus and its long-lasting symptoms such as shortness of breath, also known as dyspnoea, could cause heart issues. Belgian scientists have confirmed that those long COVID symptoms could be linked to the toll the virus takes on people’s hearts.
Researchers examined data from 66 patients without previous heart or lung disease who were hospitalized with COVID-19 between March and April 2020. The patients’ lung capacity and longterm COVID symptoms were assessed a year after being discharged from hospital using special x-ray equipment known as chest computed tomography. Ultrasounds and a more modern imaging technique known as myocardial work were also carried out to examine patients’ heart health.
Scans of patients who continued to be short of breath a year after being hospitalized with COVID showed greater heart damage, the researchers report.
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