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Published on: August 16, 2019
Title: Serious COVID-19 may have a causal relationship with myocardial injury: A Mendelian randomization study
Mei Jia Liu1, Xue Qing Sun2, Long Bo Li2
1Department of Ultrasound, The Second Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Insights
Severe COVID-19, particularly hospitalization and respiratory symptoms, is causally linked to myocardial injury. This Mendelian randomization study highlights a significant risk for heart damage in severe coronavirus disease 2019 cases.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Infectious Diseases
- Genetics
Background:
- The relationship between COVID-19 and myocardial injury remains unclear.
- Investigating potential causal links is crucial for understanding COVID-19's systemic effects.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the causal association between COVID-19 and myocardial injury.
- Utilize Mendelian randomization (MR) to assess this relationship.
Main Methods:
- Employed Mendelian randomization (MR) using summary data from GWAS.
- Selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with COVID-19 susceptibility and severity as instrumental variables.
- Applied inverse-variance weighting (IVW) as the primary analysis method, with sensitivity analyses for reliability.
Main Results:
- Causal association found between severe COVID-19 hospitalization and myocardial injury (β = 0.14, p = 0.01).
- Severe respiratory symptoms in COVID-19 positively impacted myocardial injury (β = 0.11, p = 0.005).
Conclusions:
- Severe COVID-19, indicated by hospitalization and respiratory symptoms, may elevate the risk of myocardial injury.
- Findings suggest a direct detrimental effect of severe COVID-19 on cardiac health.
Abstract:
Background: The association of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with myocardial injury is not well known. This study explored the association between them using the Mendelian randomization (MR) method. Method: We obtained summary data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on myocardial injury and COVID-19 from public databases. Then, as tool variables, we chose single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with susceptibility and COVID-19 severity to investigate the causal relationship of COVID-19 with myocardial injury using inverse-variance weighting (IVW) as the primary approach. Finally, the reliability of the results was evaluated by performing sensitivity analyses. Results: As revealed by the IVW analyses, the seriously hospitalized patients with COVID-19 had causality with myocardial injury, with an β of 0.14 and 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.03-0.25 (p = 0.01). The results showed that COVID-19 with severe respiratory symptoms positively affected myocardial injury (β = 0.11, 95% CI = 0.03-0.19; p = 0.005). Conclusion: According to this study, severe respiratory symptoms and hospitalization due to COVID-19 may increase the risk of myocardial injury.
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