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OKLAHOMA CITY —
While doctors across the country are still learning about the possible long-term effects COVID-19 can have on the body, they’ve discovered how it’s impacting the heart.
In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed heart disease as the leading cause of death in Oklahoma. Local doctors said it still is.
“Over 50% of the population in Oklahoma will die of cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. Marcus Smith, an interventional cardiologist with the Cardiovascular Health Clinic.
The concern is rising as cardiologists like Smith have found that COVID-19 has affected some patients’ hearts in devastating ways. The virus has caused inflammation and blood clots throughout the body while increasing the overall risk of a heart attack sometimes weeks, even months, after beating the virus.
Dr. Usman Baber with OU Health saw it firsthand with one of his patients.
“I had a patient that I took care of who had COVID one or two weeks prior. Healthy individual, you know, young. And all of a sudden, he got short of breath, had kind of mild COVID,” Baber said. “One area of his lungs got clotted off, so that is clearly someone who had had COVID and now had a secondary sort of manifestation of the disease.”
Both Baber and Smith said therapeutic treatments — such as giving blood thinners to patients with clotting — are being tested in an effort to combat the issues.
“For example, Remdesivir, these drugs are antiviral. They’re trying to attack the virus upfront. The blood-thinner studies are kind of in a different vein. They’re saying, ‘Well, you had the virus. Let’s now thin your blood early or more aggressively.’”
“We’re also finding that people, because of fear of COVID, haven’t been getting the appropriate care they need,” Smith added. “So, it’s that fine balance between making sure you’re listening to your body, knowing your risk factors. And if there are concerns, you need to be talking to a health care professional.”
