Philip Adamson, M.D., M.Sc.: The Relationship Between Cardiovascular Manifestations and COVID-19

Cardiovascular manifestations of COVID-19 can be devastating and lead to the need for advanced therapies that are required in intensive care units. Managed Healthcare Executive® had the chance to speak with Philip B. Adamson, M.D., M.Sc., FACC, divisional vice president of Global Clinical Affairs, and chief medical officer of Abbott Laboratories, about the relationship between COVID-19 and heart disease.

Angiotensin receptors are located in every tissue in the body, including the heart and they allow viruses to enter all the cells in the body — even the heart cells. The systemic inflammation damages all the organs, including the heart, and can be quite profound considering the damage done and can give rise to cardiovascular complications. And these events can be thrombotic and direct heart tissue directly.

“I think that the microvascular thrombosis that occurs, even when this profound procoagulant state is not clinically present, seems to not only impact the lungs with micro thrombotic complications, but also the heart,” Adamson said.

Still, it’s difficult to tell what’s going to happen in several years to those who have survived the moderate to severe cases, he said.

“In two years, will we see a pandemic have dilated cardiomyopathies as a result of this process that has sensitized them, the heart to a chronic slow burn, immune damage — that could be a long-term sequela of this — we don’t know. And so, I certainly hope that early intervention will prevent the sequela,” Adamson added.