A review of cardiovascular involvements associated with medications used to treat COVID-19 infection

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread rapidly across the world and is introduced as a global health crisis. COVID-19 is one of the threatening pandemics in history involving many organs, including the cardiovascular system. The cardiovascular involvements, such as myocardial injury, myocarditis, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmias, and heart failure, have been reported in the COVID-19 patients. Currently, there is no specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19; though, some therapies such as interferon, remdesivir, ribavirin, favipiravir, and tocilizumab are being used. The medications used to treat COVID-19 may have cardiovascular adverse events or interact with some cardiovascular drugs. The most concerning conditions caused by these medications are QTc prolongation and torsades de pointes (TdP), which might cause abrupt death. Here, we describe cardiac adverse effects and potential interactions of COVID-19 medications with cardiovascular agents.