Wuhan 3years after the outbreak of the pandemic-cardiological insights and perspectives.

Abstract

In November 2019, Wuhan, acity in Central China, became the center of an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause, which was later named "coronavirus disease 2019" (COVID-19). COVID-19 is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. The emergence of novel SARS-CoV‑2 strains and mutations exerted aserious global public health threat. Although various vaccines have been developed, specific anti-SARS-CoV‑2 drugs are limited. As cardiologists, we believe that because SARS-CoV‑2 can bind to the angiotensin2 receptor on the surface of cardiomyocytes, it may also lead to cardiac injury. COVID-19-associated cardiac injury is not rare in clinical practice, and most of these cases are mild, while afew might progress to fulminant myocarditis (FM). Overactivated immune response and inflammatory storm represent the core pathogenesis of COVID-19-associated FM. Early identification and diagnosis of COVID-19-associated FM are critical for its treatment. Recently, Wuhan was hit by the Omicron variant again. We proposed managing COVID-19-associated cardiac injury according to the severity, which has had asignificant effect on outcome.