Coronavirus (COVID-19)

This page contains medical information for clinicians on the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19, also called 2019-nCoV, and now clinically SARS‐CoV‐2). This section includes articles that pertain to clinicians and cardiologists on the virus, new technologies being deployed to fight the virus and clinical information from various sources. Here are direct links for medical professionals to COVID-19 resources from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Daily world-wide statistics on the coronavirus outbreak are available from the WHO Situations Reports. Here is the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) frequently asked questions and answers (FAQs) for healthcare providers regarding Medicare payment for laboratory tests and other services related to the COVID-19.

The American Heart Association announced its support this week for the CDC and FDA recommendation that immuno-compromised patients should receive a third dose of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID vaccines. Getty Images #AHA #coronavirus #COVID19

News | Coronavirus (COVID-19) | By Dave Fornell, Editor

American Heart Association Supports COVID Vaccine Boosters Suggested by the CDC

August 18, 2021 — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended Friday a third dose of the ...

August 18, 2021

A lone vendor booth in a sea of open space in a corner of the expo floor at HIMSS 2021 this week. A large number of vendors decided to pull out of exhibiting at HIMSS in recent weeks because the host city of Las Vegas saw a major surge of COVID cases over July, reaching a 20.2% positivity rate on the day HIMSS began.

Blog | Coronavirus (COVID-19)

HIMSS 2021 Showed What to Expect From In-person Healthcare Conferences During the COVID Pandemic

The in-person 2021 Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) meeting planned for Aug. 9-13 appeared to ...

August 13, 2021

An example from the study of the Biosense Webster NuVision 3D/4D ICE imaging capability showing the left atrial appendage (LAA) visualization on 3D ICE. The system allows the user to place a false lighting source to be placed in different positions to change the lighting and shadows to better visualize the anatomy.

News | EP Lab | By Dave Fornell, Editor

First-in-Human Experience With Novel 4D ICE Catheter For Catheter Ablation and LAA Closure Procedures

August 5, 2021 — A prospective, non-randomized, multicenter, first-in-human clinical study found good diagnostic and ...

August 05, 2021

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COVID-19 has posed challenges for physicians whose cardiac patients are at-risk and reluctant to schedule an office visit. Floyd Russak, M.D., of Russak Personalized Medicine, an internal medicine physician practicing in Greenwood Village, Colo., manages many cardiac patients who do not have ready access to a cardiologist

Feature | Wearables

Cardiac Monitoring in the Time of COVID-19: Next Generation Wearable ECG Technology Comes into Its Own

COVID-19 has posed challenges for physicians whose cardiac patients are at-risk and reluctant to schedule an office ...

December 15, 2020

New trial results from the international RAPID Trial show that administering a full dose of a standard blood thinner early to moderately ill hospitalized patients with COVID-19 could halt the thrombo-inflammation process and reduce the risk of severe disease and death. How to anticoagulate COVID patients. How to prevent thrombus in COVID patients.

Feature | Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Study Supports Early Anticoagulant Treatment to Reduce Death in Moderately Ill COVID-19 Patients

July 15, 2021 — COVID-19 is marked by heightened inflammation and abnormal clotting in the blood vessels, particularly ...

July 15, 2021

Diluting of a blood sample for real-time deformability cytometry testing. Researchers at the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin in Erlangen. Germany, were able to show for the first time COVID-19 significantly changes the size and stiffness of red and white blood cells, sometimes over months. From the study How a COVID-19 Infection Changes Blood Cells in the Long Run. Reasons for long COVID.

News | Coronavirus (COVID-19)

COVID-19 Changes Properties Blood Cells

July 15, 2021 — Using real-time deformability cytometry, researchers at the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin in ...

July 15, 2021

An example of a strain echo from the study showing reduced peak longitudinal/reservoir left atrial strain in a COVID-19 patient who developed atrial fibrillation during admission. Average left atrial strain here is 20% (normal should be above 38%).

News | Cardiovascular Ultrasound

Speckle Tracking Strain Echo May Predict Heart Complications From COVID-19

July 13, 2021 — Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have shown that speckle-tracking strain echocardiograms may ...

July 14, 2021

Videos | Artificial Intelligence

VIDEO: Artificial Intelligence Identifies High-Risk COVID Patients From Cardiac Ultrasounds

Federico Asch, M.D., FASE, director of cardiovascular core labs, cardiovascular imaging, MedStar Health Research ...

July 01, 2021

News | Cardiovascular Ultrasound

Echocardiography Related COVID-19 Research Presented at ASE 2021

June 29, 2021 – A new original science category being featured at the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) 2021 ...

June 29, 2021

Researchers analyzing surveillance data on 518 children and adolescents with MIS-C who were admitted to U.S. hospitals in 2020 fopiund those treated with intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) plus glucocorticoids had a lower risk of new or persistent cardiovascular dysfunction than IVIG alone. Left photo Getty Images, right photo Nemours Children’s Health System.

News | Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Study Provides MIS-C Treatment Guidance To Avoid Cardiovascular Dysfunction

June 28, 2021 - A recent analysis found that children and adolescents with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children ...

June 28, 2021

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced June 25 it has added a warning on the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine fact sheets to explain they may cause myocarditis in rare cases as a side effect. The agency said the side effect is very rare and patients generally recover quickly, but it can disportionally affect younger patients in their teens and early 20s. Getty Images

News | Coronavirus (COVID-19) | Dave Fornell, Editor

FDA Adds Myocarditis Warning to COVID mRNA Vaccine Clinician Fact Sheets

June 28, 2021 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced June 25 it has added a warning on the Moderna and ...

June 28, 2021

Point of care ultrasound, POCUS, combined with artificial intelligence, can help improve echo image quality by inexperienced sonographers.

News | Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence Guided Point of Care Ultrasound by Novice Users

June 25, 2021 – COVID-19 changed everything in healthcare, and a benefit from this pandemic was a surge in innovations ...

June 25, 2021

A small number of patients develop myocarditis after receiving the messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. This recently raised concerns after numbers for this adverse reaction jumped in April and May, prompting review this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on the Immunization Practices (ACIP).

Feature | Coronavirus (COVID-19) | By Dave Fornell, Editor

Overview of Myocarditis Cases Caused by the COVID-19 Vaccine

A small number of patients develop inflammation leading to myocarditis after receiving the messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 ...

June 24, 2021