ABSTRACT
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Preventive cardiology has an important role to play in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been observed to have a greater mortality impact on subgroups of people in the population who are deemed to be at higher medical disease risk. Individuals with cardiovascular disorders are one such COVID-19-associated high-mortality risk group. RECENT FINDINGS: Evidence is accumulating that COVID-19 infection may worsen an individual's future cardiovascular health, and, preinfection/postinfection cardiovascular evaluation may be warranted to determine if progressive cardiovascular damage has occurred because of COVID-19 infection. In this study, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis, focusing on the association between COVID-19 severity and cardiac-specific biomarkers, including N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), troponin T (TnT)/troponin I (TnI), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase, and creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB). TnT had the highest odds ratio or OR (11.83) indicating the greatest association with COVID-19 severity, followed by NT-proBNP (7.57), TnI (6.32), LDH (4.79), D-dimer (4.10), creatine kinase (3.43), and CK-MB (3.35). All of the biomarkers studied were significantly correlated with COVID-19 severity including severe symptoms, ICU care, and mortality (Pâ<â0.0001, except Pâ<â0.01 for CK-MB). SUMMARY: COVID-19 infection results in short-term and long-term disease risk that may involve adverse cardiovascular health issues including heart failure. Cardiac-specific biomarkers appear to identify a subset of COVID-19 patients who have the highest risk of an adverse medical outcome. Preventive cardiology has an important role to play in the COVID-19 pandemic.The risk/benefit analysis of maintaining or eliminating the use of the angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-I) medications deserves further investigation.