Long-Term Effects of COVID Can Damage the Heart

Saturday, February 13th, 2021 -- 10:00 AM

(WBAY) Even though we’re about a year into the pandemic, there are still a lot of things we don’t know about long-term effects from coronavirus.

That includes any lasting impact on the heart.  “Even people with healthy hearts coming in with COVID-19, if they’re serious enough to be hospitalized, oftentimes they do have cardiac complications during their hospitalization,” explains Dr. Scott Weslow, an interventional cardiologist with Aurora BayCare Cardiology in Green Bay.

February is designated as Heart Month, so this is always a busy time of year for him, but this year, heart health has new meaning and new attention for people who’ve never before thought much about it.

Dr. Weslow says the number of people suffering heart attacks isn’t changing during COVID-19, but more people are seeing damaged or weakened heart muscle.

“Ten to 25 percent of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 will have some amount of heart muscle damage from their infection,” Dr. Weslow says.  A blood test is used to determine heart damage and can detect even a very small amount of damage.

While this is affecting patients of all ages, and the damage varies from case to case, Dr. Weslow says cardiologists are being called to the hospital more often to assess COVID-19 patients’ hearts.  It’s still so early in a relatively new virus, though, that doctors still need more data to know what to tell them long-term.

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