1 in 10 corona patients develop heart complications on admission | Inland

Almost all patients (almost 95 percent) were in Dutch hospitals. Almost a third of the patients already had cardiovascular disease before admission to hospital. More than 60 percent of the patients in the study were male, and the mean age was 67 years.

In hospital corona patients, atrial fibrillation (142 patients, 4.7 percent) and other atrial arrhythmias are the most common complications of the heart. Serious heart complications are less common.

During admission, heart failure was diagnosed in 55 patients, myocardial infarction in 15 patients, cardiac arrhythmias that can lead to cardiac arrest in 14 people and inflammation of the lining of the heart, the valves, the heart muscle or the pericardium in 8 patients. Almost 200 patients (6.6 percent) developed a pulmonary embolism. These complications occur more often in seriously ill patients in intensive care.

During the stay in the hospital, 595 (almost 20 percent) patients died, 16 of them from heart problems. They stayed in hospital for an average of 7 days. Those who ended up in intensive care were there for an average of 13 days.

“It is alarming that corona can be associated with problems in the cardiovascular system,” says Floris Italianer, director of the Heart Foundation. He says it is important that there is more knowledge quickly, for example about which patient is more likely to have serious consequences for him or her from corona. Follow-up research must also reveal how many patients get and keep complications in the long term, even after admission to hospital.

Worldwide, this is the largest study into heart complications in corona patients, the foundation reports. The results come from the international CAPACITY-COVID registration to which 74 hospitals in 13 countries contribute. During the first corona wave, half of all hospital admissions in the Netherlands were registered there. This data is used in many studies.

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