Top news in COVID-19 and the heart: Fauci at AHA, telehealth and more

Healio and Cardiology Today have compiled a list of the top-read news in COVID-19 and CV health.

Readers were most interested in a talk by Anthony S. Fauci, MD, on COVID-19 and the heart, telehealth amid the pandemic, hydroxychloroquine and arrhythmia risk and more.

Fauci: Underlying CVD drives risk for COVID-19 severity, death

COVID-19 can cause severe CV complications, manifested by arrythmias, myocardial injury, thromboembolic phenomenon and cardiomyopathies, Fauci said during a presentation at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. Read more

COVID-19 CVD registry highlights racial/ethnic disparities, risk in obesity

CVD complications in patients with COVID-19 are less common than were believed, but COVID-19 complications disproportionately affect patients with obesity and Black and Hispanic individuals, according to new registry data. Read more

Telehealth shift during COVID-19 pandemic shows capacity to safely deliver cardiology care

As clinicians around the world rapidly transitioned from in-person to telehealth visits during the COVID-19 pandemic, it required managing many changes at once. Read more

Business of cardiology ‘severely disrupted’ by COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our current way of life, comparable in magnitude perhaps to transformations that followed the Great Plague of the Middle Ages and the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-1920. Read more

Viewpoint: COVID-19 resembles endothelial disease, anti-inflammatory therapies may help

COVID-19 resembles an endothelial disease and treating it with anti-inflammatory agents, similarly to other endothelial diseases, may be appropriate, according to a viewpoint published in the European Heart Journal. Read more

Short-term COVID-19 treatment with hydroxychloroquine may not confer arrhythmia risk

Hydroxychloroquine may be safe for the short-term treatment of patients with COVID-19 who were chosen for therapy after undergoing risk assessment, researchers found. Read more

COVID-19 may increase risk for HFpEF

There may be a link between COVID-19 and HF with preserved ejection fraction, as infection from SARS-CoV-2 may cause, unmask or exacerbate HFpEF, according to a viewpoint published in JAMA. Read more

In COVID-19 hospitalizations, survival after cardiac arrest very low

In a single-center experience, no patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who developed cardiac arrest survived to discharge after receiving CPR, researchers found. Read more

Racial, ethnic health disparities, already prevalent, growing worse due to COVID-19

Health equity and acknowledgment of disparities among Black and Hispanic individuals is of paramount concern, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a presentation at the virtual Cardiometabolic Health Congress. Read more

CPR success, survival to discharge in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest dropped amid COVID-19

Rates of return of spontaneous circulation and survival to discharge for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest declined in the U.S. early during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the previous year, researchers reported. Read more