Even mild myocardial injuries are a bad sign for COVID-19 patients
Researchers have found a link between myocardial injury and a higher risk of death among patients hospitalized in the United States for COVID-19, sharing their analysis in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The team tracked data from more than 2,700 patients admitted to one of five New York City hospitals with a confirmed case of COVID-19. All patients were treated from Feb. 27 to April 12, 2020, and the median patient age was 66 years old. In addition, approximately 25% of the cohort had a history of heart disease, including coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation and heart failure.
Overall, troponin levels in the patients’ blood revealed that even minor myocardial injuries were associated with a lower likelihood of being discharged from the hospital. And, the authors added, the risk of death is up to three times higher when the myocardial injury was severe enough.
“We found that 36% of patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 had elevated troponin levels—which represents heart injury—and were at higher risk of death,” lead author Anu Lala, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said in a statement. “These findings, which are consistent with reports from China and Europe, are important for clinicians. If COVID-19-positive patients arrive in the emergency room and their initial test results show troponin levels are elevated, doctors may be able to better triage these patients and watch over them more closely, but this remains a testable hypothesis.”
While 17% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients had troponin levels that were mildly elevated, another 19% had a more substantial injury. For those patients with the highest troponin levels, the risk of death was up to three times higher than patients with no signs of myocardial injury.
“The study concludes that myocardial injury is common among patients hospitalized with COVID-19 but is more often mild and associated with low-level troponin elevation,” Lala added. “Despite low levels, even small amounts of heart injury could be linked to a pronounced risk of death, and COVID-19 patients with a history of cardiovascular disease are more likely to have myocardial injury when compared to patients without heart disease.”
The full study is available here.
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.