A new study published in the journal Circulation has found that the coronavirus that causes COVID can damage the heart even without directly infecting the heart tissue. The researchers studied the damage to the hearts of people with COVID-associated serious lung conditions, ARDS, or acute respiratory distress syndrome.
The findings of the study open up a whole new understanding of the link between this serious lung injury and the kind of inflammation that can lead to cardiovascular complications, says Michelle Olive, Ph.D., associate director of the Basic and Early Translational Research Program at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
