General practice Terapia 2021, 2 ( 397 ) : 64 - 74
Cleaning up after a disaster: Treatment of COVID-19 convalescents with multiple comorbidities
Summary:
The prolonged and longer-term observation of convalescents, extending with the pandemicʼs duration, demonstrates that COVID-19, but also an asymptomatic or scarcely symptomatic course of SARS-CoV-2 infection, may initiate a chronic inflammatory process leading to degenerative changes in the cardiovascular, respiratory or central nervous systems. Changes initiated during the infection accelerate the course of coexisting chronic disorders, while the systemic immune response to the pathogen, including a cytokine storm leading to SIRS, initiates multiorgan changes that, if overlooked, may worsen the prognosis. Therefore, when taking care of a convalescent, one should not “automatically” return to all therapeutic regimens but optimize them, taking into consideration all the possible complications. Therefore, a thorough cardiological, pulmonological, neurological and endocrine assessment of a patient with multiple diseases should be performed and repeated regularly every couple to several months, to prevent a medical mistakes due to omission and so as not to overlook the beginning of life-threatening target complications. This brief review paper summarizes the current state of knowledge on the impact of a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the course of cardiovascular diseases, the pulmonary and endocrine system, and abnormalities. New chronic diseases initiated by the infection are also specified, since their overlooking can cost a pa-tientʼs life.
Keywords: COVID-19, convalescent, hypertension, chronic coronary syndrome, diabetes mellitus, congestive heart failure
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