Dixit, Neal M, Churchill, Austin, Nsair, Ali et al. · American heart journal plus : cardiology research and practice · 2021 · DOI
Some people who have had COVID-19 develop long-lasting symptoms weeks or months later, including chest pain and heart palpitations (feeling your heart racing). This review examines what we know about how COVID-19 affects the heart during this long-COVID period. While the virus itself rarely causes direct heart damage, it can trigger several heart-related conditions that may explain why patients experience these symptoms.
This work is relevant to ME/CFS because many long-COVID patients report orthostatic symptoms and cardiac manifestations similar to those seen in ME/CFS, and understanding post-viral cardiovascular dysfunction may illuminate shared pathophysiological mechanisms. A clearer framework for evaluating and managing cardiac symptoms in post-viral syndromes could improve clinical care and reduce diagnostic delays for patients with persistent unexplained symptoms.
This review does not establish causation between SARS-CoV-2 and specific cardiovascular syndromes, nor does it quantify prevalence of individual cardiac conditions in PACS. The review does not prove that mechanisms underlying cardiovascular symptoms in long-COVID are identical to ME/CFS, nor does it provide evidence-based diagnostic criteria or treatment protocols validated in randomized controlled trials.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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