• Tienush Rassaf, Matthias Totzeck, Amir A Mahabadi, Ulrike Hendgen-Cotta, Sebastian Korste, Stephan Settelmeier, Peter Luedike, Ulf Dittmer, Frank Herbstreit, Thorsten Brenner, Karin Klingel, Mike Hasenberg, Bernd Walkenfort, Matthias Gunzer, Thomas Schlosser, Alexander Weymann, Markus Kamler, Bastian Schmack, and Arjang Ruhparwar.
• Department of Cardiology and Vascular Medicine, West German Heart and Vascular Center Essen, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany.
• ESC Heart Fail. 2021 Feb 1; 8 (1): 162-166.

AbstractCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is challenging the care for cardiovascular patients, resulting in serious consequences with increasing mortality in pre-diseased heart failure patients. In the current state of the pandemic, the physiopathology of COVID-19 affecting pre-diseased hearts and the management of terminal heart failure in COVID-19 patients remain unclear. We outline the findings of a young COVID-19 patient suffering from idiopathic cardiomyopathy who was treated for acute multi-organ failure and required cardiac surgery with implantation of a temporary right ventricular and durable left ventricular assist device (LVAD). For deeper translational insights, we used in-depth tissue analysis by electron and light sheet fluorescence microscopy revealing evidence for spatial distribution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in the heart. This indicates that in-depth analysis may represent a valuable tool in understanding indistinct clinical cases. We conclude that COVID-19 directly affects pre-diseased hearts, but the consequences can be treated successfully with LVAD implantation.© 2020 The Authors. ESC Heart Failure published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society of Cardiology.

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