One in eight suffer heart inflammation after hospitalization with Covid: Study

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One in eight people who were hospitalized with Covid-19 between May 2020 and March 2021 were later diagnosed with myocarditis or heart inflammation, according to new research into Covids clinical long-term effects.

The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, suggests that it is the severity of the Covid-19 infection itself which is most closely correlated to the severity of patients’ long Covid symptoms, rather than pre-existing health problems, as speculated so far.

The largest study of its kind to date was led by the University of Glasgow and followed for one year, in real-time, with 159 patients after they were hospitalized with Covid-19, Medical Daily reported.

The results showed that hospitalization with Covid was found to cause a number of long-term health problems. Besides heart inflammation, inflammation across the body and damage to the other organs such as the kidneys were also common.

Exercise capacity and health-related quality of life were markedly impaired initially after discharge from hospital and remained reduced one to two months after discharge – this was especially the case in patients with heart inflammation.

During a period of 450 days after discharge from the hospital, one in seven patients died or was readmitted to the hospital, and two in three patients required outpatient care.

Being hospitalized with Covid-19 was also associated with a worse health-related quality of life as well as with anxiety and depression.

“Covid-19 is a multi-system disease, and our study shows that injury to the heart, lungs and kidneys can be seen after initial hospitalization in scans and blood tests.

These results bridge a vital knowledge gap between our current understanding of post-Covid-19 syndromes, such as Long Covid, and objective evidence of ongoing disease,” Professor Colin Berry, Professor of Cardiology and Imaging at the University.