Reacción a "Reaction to study analysing the prevalence of acute myocarditis in covid-19 patients"

There is now scientific consensus that the covid-19 virus is not only a respiratory virus that causes pneumonia, but also affects the cardiovascular system.

An article in The Lancet: Child and Adolescent Health in August 2020 describes a case of acute fulminant myocarditis due to SARS-CoV-2 in a Brazilian girl who died. At necropsy, electron microscopy showed inclusion of virus in cardiac cells.

In this article in Circulation, a multicentre participation of European and US hospitals clarifies the prevalence of acute myocarditis caused by covid-19 virus using patients detected from February 2020 to April 2021.

Cases with diagnoses of acute myocarditis caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, detected by endocardial biopsy or cardiac magnetic resonance imaging associated with troponin T elevation and accompanying symptomatology, are clearly selected. Suspected cases that did not meet the diagnostic criteria established by international cardiological societies were discarded.

It is a rare disease and may be present in covid-19 with a prevalence of 2.4 to 4.1 cases per 1,000 hospitalised patients, with a mean age of 38 years, more frequent in men than in women. The association with covid-19 pneumonia is the most frequent form of presentation, as well as the one that causes the highest mortality (5 to 8 deaths per 1,000 hospitalised patients).

This paper describes in detail the clinical, analytical and echocardiographic features of cases with probable acute myocarditis due to SARS-CoV-2. It is the most detailed, extensive and scientifically rigorous review published to date at the medical level.