Breathlessness caused by 'Long COVID' could indicate heart damage

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Shortness of breath in persons with "long COVID" may be indicative of heart damage caused by the condition, according to recent research.

"The findings could help to explain why some patients with lengthy COVID still experience dyspnea a year later," said research author Dr. Maria-Luiza Luchian of the University Hospital Brussels in Belgium.

Her findings were presented at a virtual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology on Thursday (ESC).

The current study comprised 66 patients, with an average age of 50, who had no history of heart or lung disease before being hospitalized with COVID-19 at Luchian's hospital in Brussels between March and April 2020.

Thirty-five percent of patients still had shortness of breath during vigorous activity a year after leaving the hospital.

All of the patients had their lungs and hearts image, including a new imaging technique called "myocardial work," which, according to the researchers, provides more detailed information on heart function than prior approaches.

People with shortness of breath had inferior heart performance than individuals who did not have shortness of breath, according to the findings. According to the study's authors, there was a strong and independent link between poor heart function and prolonged shortness of breath ("dyspnea").

"Our findings show that more than a third of COVID-19 patients with no history of heart or lung disease had persistent dyspnea on effort a year after discharge from the hospital," Luchian said in an ESC news statement.

"We detected tiny irregularities that could explain the persisting dyspnea when we used cardiac ultrasonography to look at heart function in-depth," she said.

"Our findings demonstrate that a year after discharge from the hospital, more than a third of COVID-19 patients with no history of heart or lung disease had persistent dyspnea on effort," Luchian stated in an ESC news release.

"We detected tiny irregularities that could explain the persisting dyspnea when we used cardiac ultrasonography to look at heart function in-depth," she said. According to her, some risk factors such as smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes might increase a person's risk even more.

"Persistent symptoms after a COVID-19 infection, particularly shortness of breath, should be evaluated by a cardiologist as soon as possible," Malaney says, citing the likelihood of underlying heart muscle damage from the infection. Echocardiograms can aid in the confirmation of a diagnosis.

"This is a simple, non-invasive test that can be done in the office," Malaney said. "It offers us a lot of information about the heart and its function, and it can detect damage caused to COVID-19."

The Belgian findings should be regarded as preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed publication, as they were presented at a medical convention.

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