NEW ORLEANS — It’s become quite evident the past few months that COVID-19 can have an adverse effect on the heart. Still, scientists and doctors are still struggling to fully understand the relationship between COVID-19 and heart health. Now, a series of autopsies performed by Louisiana State University pathologists yield some unusual observations.
The team at LSU says that the damage done to the hearts of COVID-19 patients is not consistent with typical heart muscle inflammation patterns seen with myocarditis (heart muscle inflammation). Instead, the observed pattern of cell death is quite unique, and spread across scattered, individual heart muscle cells.
“We identified key gross and microscopic changes that challenge the notion that typical myocarditis is present in severe SARS-CoV-2 infection,” says Dr. Richard Vander Heide, professor and Director of Pathology Research at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, in a release. “While the mechanism of cardiac injury in COVID-19 is unknown, we propose several theories that bear further investigation that will lead to greater understanding and potential treatment interventions.”
Additionally, the pathologists also note SARS-CoV-2 was not present in any heart muscle cells. This is especially odd because the first SARS coronavirus from 2003 was found within the heart muscle cells of SARS patients.
COVID-19 patients also showed no signs of blood vessel blockages in their coronary arteries.
Source: StudyFinds
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