Let Us Not Forget Cardiovascular Diseases During COVID-19 Pandemic: the Role of Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation

Abstract

During novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, major focus of health service is on mitigating the spread of infection and treating the acute severe respiratory syndrome of affected patients. However, from available initial data, it has been shown that cardiovascular and metabolic diseases are responsible for a worse clinical outcome of COVID-19 patients and, on the other hand, myocardial damage might occur as a consequence of infection. Therefore, we propose not to forget the heart during pandemic and to focus on cardiac care in at least three phases: prevention, acute phase, and rehabilitation. We report rationale, scientific evidence, and clinical model for the proposed three-phase program.