The US study shows the risks were higher even in those who were not admitted to the hospital when they had Covid and increased depending on the care setting, from non-hospitalised to those who needed ICU care. “Our results provide evidence that the risk and one-year burden of cardiovascular disease in survivors of acute Covid are substantial,” the study, recently published in the journal Nature Medicine, states.

Said Dr R R Kasliwal, chairman of Clinical and Preventive Cardiology Department at Medanta -The Medicity Hospital, “We know that Covid-19 results in cytokine storm and affects the heart. We know Covid patients come in with various heart conditions. But we cannot say for sure who will develop these long Covid symptoms and when. It can be after three months, six months, or a year. We are seeing patients from the previous wave still coming to the hospital with heart conditions; it is too soon to say if omicron will have a similar effect.”

“Of course, those who have co-morbidities such as diabetes and hypertension — who are anyway at a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases — have a higher chance of developing heart conditions as Covid sequelae. But we have seen others also coming in with blockages, heart dysfunctions, and high pulse rate months after infection,” he added.

Dr Vivudh Pratap Singh, consultant of Interventional Cardiology at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, said, “In our OPD, we are frequently seeing patients from the surge in cases in April-May last year with post-Covid sequelae in the long haul.”

He said patients experience a host of complications such as myocarditis (inflammation of heart muscles), left ventricular dysfunction (a condition where the heart’s left ventricle chamber is damaged), pericarditis (inflammation of the sac covering the heart), and myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Dr Singh added, “Since Covid-19, we are seeing an increase in the number of patients with heart failure. We have more heart failure without any ischemic cause (any condition that cuts off blood supply such as clots being stuck in the vessel). Usually, failure is either caused by ischemia or weakening of heart muscles. Another study from Australia has also shown 15 times increase in myocarditis and pericarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle and the sac around the heart), six times increase in thromboembolism (clot getting stuck in a blood vessel), and four times in heart attacks.”

Doctors suggest that those who have recovered from Covid, even those with milder disease, undergo a cardiac check-up around six months after the infection, at least till researchers can determine who is at risk of these long Covid symptoms.

“There should be routine screening for cardiac ailments around 6-9 months after Covid infection. Most likely, new protocols will come up. Most have no symptoms, but there are some in whom heart muscles get affected and even though there are no symptoms in the short-term it could result in inefficient pumping later on. There are some who develop electrical anomalies causing the heart to start beating fast. We have already reported heart attacks and strokes due to clots immediately after Covid infection,” said Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, group medical director, Max Healthcare.

He further said, “Last year, we showed in a study that long Covid symptoms were not related to severity of the disease. So, there is no reason to believe that there will not be post-Covid symptoms with omicron even though symptoms are milder.”

Dr Kasliwal also suggested that people with a history of Covid, especially those with comorbidities, should get an ECG if they have had the infection recently or a stress ECG if they had the infection over six months ago: “If there are any abnormalities, it will be detected. We still ask patients who were hospitalised with the infection not to get back to their routine activities immediately even if they feel okay because we do not know what is going on inside.”