Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction and COVID-19: a Pernicious Relationship

Introduction

The ongoing pandemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Virus-2 (SARS-CoV2) infection was first recognized in China in 2019 and brought significant health and economic threats around the world. On January 31, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease caused by SARS-CoV2 an international public health emergency and on March 11, 2020, the WHO declared it a pandemic. ^, Three months after the initial WHO declaration, there are more than 5 million confirmed cases worldwide and 300,000 deaths. In Brazil, in the same time interval, there were more than 850,000 cases and 43,000 deaths, with an upward trend.

The epidemiological and clinical severity of the pandemic by COVID-19 was initially supported by 4 alarming elements: (a) respiratory transmission with a high infectivity rate; (b) high lethality in specific subgroups; (c) high demand for intensive care and mechanical ventilation; and (d) no effective vaccine or specific treatment. Given the magnitude of the problem and the scarcity of resources, there was a recommendation for hospitalizing critically ill patients and providing them with supportive treatment and, above all, mitigation via social isolation aimed at flattening out the epidemic curve. ^–

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