Congenital Heart Defects Does Not Increase Severe COVID-19 Risk

People born with a heart defect are not at increased risk for moderate or severe COVID-19, finds a new study. The findings of the study are published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.// The study included over 7,000 adults and kids born with congenital heart disease. Between March and July 2020, the center recorded 53 congenital heart disease patients (average age 34) with COVID-19 infection.

"At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, many worried that congenital heart disease would be a major risk factor for COVID-19 as adult-onset cardiovascular disease," told the study authors. However, the investigators were "reassured by the low number of heart defect patients treated at their center and the patients' outcomes."

Among the 43 adults and ten kids with a congenital heart defect who were infected with coronavirus, 58 percent had complex congenital anatomy, 15 percent had a genetic syndrome, 11 percent had pulmonary hypertension, and 17 percent were obese.

According to the study, nine patients (17%) had a moderate/severe infection, and three patients (6%) died.

A concurrent genetic syndrome in patients of all ages and advanced physiologic stages in adult patients were each linked to a raised risk of coronavirus symptom severity, the findings showed.

"While our sample size is small, these findings imply that specific congenital heart lesions may not be sufficient cause alone for severe coronavirus infection," according to Dr. Matthew Lewis and his colleagues.

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Source-Medindia