Cardiovascular disease in patients with COVID-19: evidence from cardiovascular pathology to treatment.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly developed into a global pneumonia pandemic. At present, COVID-19 has caused more than 70,000,000 confirmed cases with over 1,500,000 deaths worldwide, as reported by WHO. Cardiovascular disease is the major comorbidity of COVID-19 patients and is closely related to the severity of COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 infection can directly or indirectly cause a series of cardiac complications, including acute myocardial injury and myocarditis, heart failure and cardiac arrest, arrhythmia, acute myocardial infarction, cardiogenic shock, Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, and coagulation abnormalities. Intensive research on the SARS-CoV-2-associated cardiovascular complications is urgently needed to elucidate its exact mechanism and to identify potential drug targets, which will help to formulate effective prevention and treatment strategies. Hence, this review will summarize recent progress regarding the effects of COVID-19 on the cardiovascular system and describe the underlying mechanism of cardiovascular injury caused by SARS-CoV-2.