A large number of clinical observations have found that about 1/5 of new coronavirus infected people can leave some long-term health problems. Among them, symptoms or risks related to the cardiovascular system are particularly prominent!
A study published in the authoritative medical journal "Nature Medicine" in 2022 that included 150,000 people infected with the new coronavirus pointed out that one year after being infected with the new coronavirus, the risk of cardiovascular disease is still high. And there are signs of an increased risk even for people with mild infections.
Among all cardiovascular-related symptoms, "chest pain" is particularly something that needs to arouse everyone's vigilance!
This article is specifically here to highlight to you which two types of chest pain you need to be particularly careful about after being infected with the new coronavirus; and what clinical characteristics they have.
一 Pulmonary embolism chest pain
In 2022, a large-scale clinical research paper based on Swedish population data pointed out: within 30 days of infection with the new coronavirus, the risk of pulmonary embolism (PE) increased 33.05 times! This research result once became a "hot search" before and attracted widespread attention.
In fact, the risk of pulmonary embolism will increase after being infected with the new coronavirus, which is relatively easy to explain medically.
First of all, research has found that infection with the new coronavirus can cause coagulation disorders in the human body, making blood more likely to coagulate and form thrombus.
This phenomenon is very obvious especially in those infected people with more serious conditions. This is why most severe and critically ill new coronavirus pneumonia patients who require hospitalization require routine "anticoagulation treatment."
Secondly, during the acute stage of COVID-19 infection, many people will stay in bed for a long time and lack physical activity.
Especially for the elderly, if they are bedridden for a long time, the problem of "deep vein thrombosis" will easily occur. Once the deep vein thrombosis breaks off, it will be flushed into the pulmonary circulation along with the venous system, causing pulmonary embolism.
Therefore, the elderly and severely infected people who have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 must be alert to the risk of pulmonary embolism, and one of the most common clinical manifestations of pulmonary embolism is chest pain.
So, what are the general characteristics of this kind of "pulmonary embolism chest pain"?
First, this kind of chest pain usually appears suddenly, mostly after pulmonary circulation is blocked by thromboembolism;
Second, this kind of chest pain is more common in nature with severe stabbing pain, and is very closely related to breathing. Deep breathing or coughing can often make chest pain worse;
Third, this kind of chest pain is often accompanied by other typical manifestations of pulmonary embolism, such as dyspnea, hemoptysis, cough, etc.
If you have chest pain that meets the above characteristics, it is recommended to go to the hospital as soon as possible for further diagnosis and treatment.
Once a large blood clot causes a large-scale pulmonary embolism, it is entirely possible for a life-threatening situation to occur!
2 Myocardial infarction chest pain
After being infected with the new coronavirus, in addition to the venous system, the risk of thrombosis in the arterial system also increases.
If an arterial thrombus suddenly forms in the coronary artery that specifically supplies blood to the heart, then a large area of myocardial tissue will soon suffer from ischemia and infarction, resulting in the "acute myocardial infarction" that many people have heard of.
Some medical studies have pointed out that within 1 year after being infected with the new coronavirus, the risk of coronary heart disease and acute myocardial infarction can increase by more than 60%.
Therefore, we also need to know what kind of chest pain is more likely to be caused by acute myocardial infarction.
First of all, this kind of chest pain also occurs suddenly, but it probably has some obvious predisposing factors. For example, strenuous exercise, staying up late, being tired, or being emotionally excited, etc.
Then, this kind of chest pain usually occurs in the precordium and behind the sternum; it is not a sharp stabbing pain in nature, but more like a squeezing dull or dull pain; it can often last for more than 15 minutes; it is generally not affected by breathing, and is not accompanied by coughing or hemoptysis.
However, this kind of chest pain can be accompanied by symptoms such as nausea, profuse sweating, pale complexion, clammy skin, and even a sense of death, and it can also "radiate" to the left shoulder, neck, back and other parts.
If you are a patient who has had "angina pectoris" before, then this kind of chest pain caused by myocardial infarction is an "enhanced version" of angina pectoris.
Once chest pain with the above characteristics occurs, you must go to the doctor in time. According to today's medical concepts, once acute myocardial infarction is diagnosed, the blocked blood vessels need to be opened as soon as possible in the shortest possible time. Only in this way can the dying myocardial tissue be saved to the greatest extent and cardiac function preserved.
Of course, this does not mean that as long as chest pain occurs, it must be a dangerous disease such as pulmonary embolism or acute myocardial infarction. In fact, more chest pain symptoms may be residual inflammatory or pleural chest pain after the lung inflammation has been absorbed. Sometimes, it may be caused by other causes such as neurological, muscular or cutaneous.
Although the actual occurrence probability of the two types of chest pain we emphasize is not very high, once they occur, their harm will be very serious. Therefore, it is recommended that everyone be aware and alert to this!
[Reference]
1, Chinese expert consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of new coronavirus infection and cardiovascular disease (2023) "Chinese Journal of Cardiovascular Disease (Online Edition)", 2023, 6:e1000136 (2023-01-18).
2, Risks of deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and bleeding after covid-19: nationwide self-controlled cases series and matched cohort study BMJ 2022;376:e069590
3, Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19 Nature Medicine | VOL 28 | March 2022 | 583–590
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