Hello, welcome everybody, this is doctor Bolad, board certified physician in cardiology, interventional
cardiology and internal medicine, certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.
If you are new to this channel, then definitely consider hitting the subscribe button below
and switch on the notification bell so you don’t miss any new videos that I post. The
Covid-19 virus enters our body through the airway and the lungs and can cause inflammation
of almost all organs of the body including the lung, heart, kidneys, brain and others,
leading to a Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome. It is unknown how long this multiorgan system
effect lasts for and it is becoming increasingly clear that it leads to long-term chronic health
conditions. Symptoms that persist months after the COVID-19 infection, or appear after the
COVID infection, have been labelled as LONG COVID or POST-COVID-19 SYNDROME. This figure
from the Journal Nature shows the timeline of the post COVID 19 complications, persisting
more than 4 weeks after the onset of the symptoms of the acute infection. All the major body
organs are involved in this Long Covid-19 syndrome. In this video I will talk about
the Long term COVID heart effects that might occur after COVID-19 infection, as identified
by review of the current scientific literature, as of April 2021. CHEST PAIN has been reported
in about 20% of people who got and survived the COVID-19 infection, the chest pain symptoms
persisting more than 60 days after the onset of infection. In an Italian study published
in the Journal JAMA, chest pain was reported in about 22% of COVID-19 infection survivors,
and in a study from France published in the Journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection,
chest pain was reported in 16% of survivors of the COVID-19 infection. PALPITATIONS is
the sensation that your heart is beating too hard or too fast or is fluttering or is skipping
a beat. In a study from Wuhan, China, where the COVID-19 pandemic is thought to have originated,
9% of patients experienced palpitations more than 6 months after the onset of the acute
infection. Palpitations is a form of arrhythmia which can be benign or can be serious to your
heart health. Covid-19 can induce this arrhythmia or can make a pre-existing arrhythmia worse.
One of the commonest arrhythmias I see in treating COVID-19 infected patients is atrial
fibrillation, which is irregularity of the heartbeat. CARDIOMYOPATHY is weakening of
the heart muscle and function. Stress cardiomyopathy is a stress related weakening of the heart
muscle, and it had been reported to occur in about 8% in NON-COVID infected individuals
during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic incidence of < 2%. In a study published in
the Journal JAMA in July of 2020 of 100 German patients who recently RECOVERED from COVID-19
infection, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging showed that 78% of these patients had evidence
of cardiac muscle involvement from infection, and that 60% of them had evidence of ACTIVE
ongoing infection. In a study from the United States of 26 competitive college athletes
who had COVID-19 infection and had either no symptoms or mild symptoms, cardiac magnetic
resonance imaging showed that 15% had findings suggestive of active heart muscle inflammation
and 31% additional athletes showed findings suggestive of prior heart muscle injury. The
mechanism of causing heart damage after COVID-19 infection is thought to be either direct virus
infection of the heart, inflammation, immunological reactions in the heart muscle and conducting
system, and due to down regulation of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 receptors. In an autopsy
study of hearts of 39 patients that died from COVID-19 infection, the COVID virus was detected
in 62% of the hearts. If you have any questions about what I presented
to you today, then subscribe to my channel and share your question in the comments section
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Message. Please like and share this video with family and friends. This is Doctor Bolad
helping you with your heart health, thanks for watching, and talk to you soon.