The heart is a muscular organ, located just behind the breastbone in between both the lungs. Its job is to pump blood throughout body.
• Blood carries oxygen and other important nutrients, needed by the organs to stay healthy and to work properly.
• The tissues of the body need a constant supply of oxygen in order to be active. If the heart is not able to supply blood to the organs and tissues of the body , they’ll die.”
• The heart pumps blood through the network of arteries and veins which constitutes cardiovascular system, supplying oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and removing carbon dioxide and other wastes from the body.
Heart disease describes a range of conditions that affect your heart, which are as follows:
• Coronary artery disease
• Angina pectoris
• Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
• Rheumatic heart disease
• Arrhythmia
• Congestive heart failure
• Heart Valve disease
• Cardiomyopathy
• Pericarditis or Pericardial effusion
Common symptoms can include:
• Chest pain, chest tightness, pressure or discomfort
• Shortness of breath
• Pain, numbness, weakness or coldness in the extremities
• Irregular heartbeats that feel rapid or fluttering
• Lightheadedness or fainting
• Dizziness or fatigue
• Covid-19 Positive patients with cardiovascular co-morbidities or risk factors are more likely to develop heart complications.
• Thus, Pre-existing cardiovascular disease seems to be linked with worse outcomes and increased risk of death in patients with COVID-19.
• The findings showed that cardiovascular complications were seen in 14.09 per cent of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 infection.
• Once the SARS-2 virus enters the body, it causes direct damage to the lungs and starts an inflammatory response, which places stress on the heart(cardiovascular system) in two ways-
Firstly, by infecting the lungs the blood oxygen levels falls down and secondly, the inflammatory effects of the virus itself cause the blood pressure to drop. In such cases, the heart has to beat faster and harder to supply oxygen to major organs of the body.
• Direct myocardial injury due to viral involvement of cardiomyocytes and the effect of systemic inflammation appear to be the most common mechanisms responsible for cardiac injury.
Heart complications due to COVID-19 infection-
• Myocardial injury
• Arrhythmia and palpitations
• Acute coronary syndrome
• Venous thromboembolism.
Investigations: Common test that can help to diagnose heart diseases are-
• Electrocardiogram (ECG).
• Echocardiogram.
• Cardiac computerized tomography (CT) scan.
• Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
• Quit smoking
• Control other health conditions, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, for heart to stay healthy
• Exercise at least 30 minutes a day.
• Consume healthy diet, low in salt and saturated fat
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Reduce and manage stress
For more information, you can visit nature.com.
