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Abstract
From the emerging literature, cardiovascular disease appears to play a prominent role in the COVID-19 pandemic on multiple levels: (i) patients with cardiovascular risk factors and pre-existent cardiovascular disease seem to have an increased risk of a poor outcome;1,2,3 (ii) patients with COVID-19 have been, also in the absence of underlying cardiovascular disease, reported to develop cardiovascular complications;3,4,5 (iii) therapeutics currently prescribed in an experimental setting such as antimalarial and antiviral drugs have known cardiovascular side effects; and (iv) there are concerns, especially on social media, regarding the safety of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) in relation to COVID-19.3,6 Insufficient evidence is currently available to guide clinicians in the management of these patients.
To accelerate knowledge on the role of cardiovascular disease in the COVID-19 pandemic, standardized and coordinated data collection on a large scale is of pivotal importance.