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Review
. 2022 Apr;79(4):468-475.
doi: 10.1016/j.jjcc.2021.11.019. Epub 2021 Dec 1.

COVID-19 and arrhythmia: An overview

Joseph A Varney  1 , Vinh S Dong  2 , Tiffany Tsao  1 , Mariam S Sabir  1 , Amanda T Rivera  1 , Suhaib Ghula  3 , Kevin Emmanuel Moriles  2 , Mohana Laasya Cherukuri  2 , Rahim Fazal  2 , Chelsea B Azevedo  1 , Rana Mk Mohamed  1 , Garrett R Jackson  1 , Shannon E Fleming  1 , Diana E Rochez  1 , Kirellos S Abbas  4 , Jaffer H Shah  5 , Le Huu Nhat Minh  6 , Faizel Osman  7 , Samir M Rafla  8 , Nguyen Tien Huy  9
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 and arrhythmia: An overview

Joseph A Varney et al. J Cardiol. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Arrhythmias in COVID-19 patients are associated with hypoxia, myocardial ischemia, cytokines, inflammation, electrolyte abnormalities, pro-arrhythmic or QT-prolonging medications, and underlying heart conditions such as severe congestive heart failure, inherited arrhythmia syndromes, or congenital heart conditions. In the pediatric population, multisystem inflammatory syndrome can lead to cardiac injury and arrhythmias. In addition, arrhythmias and cardiac arrests are most prevalent in the critically ill intensive care unit COVID-19 patient population. This review presents an overview of the association between COVID-19 and arrhythmias by detailing possible pathophysiological mechanisms, existing knowledge of pro-arrhythmic factors, and results from studies in adult and pediatric COVID-19 populations, and the clinical implications.

Keywords: Arrhythmias; COVID-19; Heart; SARS-CoV-2.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Image, graphical abstract
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
SARS-CoV-2 mechanism of infection and pathophysiology. ACE, angiotensin-converting enzyme; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; TMPRSS2, transmembrane protease serine 2.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
SARS-CoV-2 receptor with ACE-2 receptor. ACE, angiotensin-converting enzyme; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Supplementary concepts