With a recent surge in influenza, COVID-19, and other respiratory viruses, it’s critical to pay close attention to your heart—especially if you have heart disease or the risk factors for heart disease. That’s the message from experts at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital during American Heart Month.
The recent surge can trigger cardiovascular complications from fever, dehydration, and increased inflammation, and Mount Sinai doctors are seeing a rise in these cases in all age groups, including patients in their 20s.
Patients with underlying cardiovascular disease and the associated risk factors are at increased risk. Inflammation can trigger heart attacks in people with coronary artery disease. It can also exacerbate heart failure symptoms and irregular or rapid heartbeats, leading to hospitalizations. Doctors have also seen post-viral myocarditis—inflammation around the heart that can progress to complications such as heart failure and cardiogenic shock—in otherwise healthy patients.
