Introduction
Since the last December, the entire world is facing a new pandemic
situation, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
(SARS-CoV-2). After emerging from Wuhan-China, the coronavirus
disease-2019 (COVID-19) quickly spread throughout the world. Due to all
its unknown factors, physicians are passing through real-time learning
process. As the disease spreads, a massive wave of information takes
over scientific journals and media.
This new virus belongs to the same severe acute respiratory
syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory
syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) family. Although COVID-19 clinical
manifestations are mainly respiratory, with the growing number of
infected patients, major cardiac complications have been reported in a
considerable number of COVID-19 patients1-3.
SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with a variety of pro-inflammatory
mediators that may play important roles in the pathophysiology of
cardiac and arrhythmic complications. In a single center
study1 cardiac injury was observed in 19% of
hospitalized patients with COVID-19, and it was associated with higher
risk of in-hospital mortality. Therefore, it is plausible that these
patients have an even higher risk of cardiac arrhythmias.
Aiming to shed some light in this issue, we performed this review
focused on COVID-19 cardiac manifestations not only by analyzing the
preliminary available evidence about the virus, but also by making
comparative considerations with SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and H1N1 influenza.