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COVID-19 can stop the heart, and a defibrillator may not help, Penn study finds
A new Penn Medicine study suggests that in rare cases, the coronavirus can even stop the heart and a defibrillator may not help.
Among 700 COVID-19 patients at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, nine suffered a sudden cardiac arrest after being admitted, the study authors reported Monday. Seven of the nine were under age 60.
While doctors managed to resuscitate six of those nine, including five of the under-60 group, the findings are a reminder that COVID-19 can cause injury throughout the body, senior author Rajat Deo said.
The cardiac arrests were among 53 cases of abnormal heart rhythm identified by Deo and his co-authors. Most, including all nine of the arrests, occurred in patients treated in the intensive care unit.
Evidence suggests these heart malfunctions are not the result of the virus’ infecting heart cells, said Deo, a cardiac electrophysiologist and an associate professor at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Instead, they appear to occur when the immune system overreacts to the virus, leading to dangerous inflammation.
“When the body is under so much stress, just general, overt systemic stress and inflammation, then at that time, they’re just predisposed to arrythmias,” Deo said.