Coronavirus can mimic heart attack

In New York City, doctors began emergency surgery on a patient who had all the signs of a heart attack. An electrocardiogram showed a dangerous heart rhythm. A blood test revealed high blood levels of troponin, a sign of damaged heart muscle.

But, on the operating table, the patient showed no blocked arteries.

What he did have, it turns out, was coronavirus.

Now recovered after a 12-day stay, the patient was one of the similar cases reported around the world.

For doctors the case is troubling.

Should the cardiac test for troponin routinely be administered to Covid-19 patients? Should heart patients immediately be tested for Covid-19?

A March study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association was conducted by doctors in Wuhan, China, where the virus was first identified. The small study was limited to a review of records of 188 patients, according to JAMA. The study found that 20 percent of the Covid-19 patients were found to have heart damage. Upon admission, Covid-19 patients without heart disease were found to show signs of heart injury, including elevated troponin, and abnormal electrocardiograms. Patients showing these symptoms had a four times greater risk of death than a Covid-19 patient with no abnormal heart readings, according to the New York Times.

Some experts believe heart problems are caused by the body’s immune and inflammatory response to the virus.