Acute and Subclinical Myocardial Injury in COVID-19

Methodist Debakey Cardiovasc J. 2021 Dec 15;17(5):22-30. doi: 10.14797/mdcvj.1038. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that, at the time of this writing, has led to 178,000,000 cases worldwide and more than 3,875,000 deaths. Cardiovascular complications of COVID-19 have become the focus of investigation after many hospitalized COVID-19 patients-with or without established cardiovascular disease-incurred clinical or subclinical myocardial injury, including isolated biomarker elevations, myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, heart failure, myocarditis, and cardiogenic shock. In this review, we highlight the most recent evidence of the prevalence and potential etiologies of acute and subclinical myocardial injury in COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; cardiovascular disease; coronavirus; myocardial injury; myocarditis.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Arrhythmias, Cardiac
  • COVID-19*
  • Humans
  • Myocarditis* / diagnosis
  • Myocarditis* / epidemiology
  • Myocarditis* / therapy
  • Pandemics
  • SARS-CoV-2

Grants and funding

Dr. Malahfji receives support from the Houston Methodist Research Institute; Dr. Al-Mallah receives research support from Siemens, unrelated to this work, and is a consultant for Pfizer and Philips; and Dr. Shah receives support from the National Science Foundation (CNS-1931884) and the Beverly B. and Daniel C. Arnold Distinguished Centennial Chair Endowment. All other authors have completed and submitted the Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal Conflict of Interest Statement and none were reported.