Baystate Health cardiovascular lectures go remote; opens with focus on COVID impact on heart – masslive.com

SPRINGFIELD A talk on heart complications caused by coronavirus disease 2019 will lead off the popular annual Heart & Vascular Health Series being presented remotely this year at noon on the four Sundays in February by Baystate Health due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The series, held in conjunction with American Heart Month and given by Baystate providers, begins with the Feb. 7 talk, The COVID Heart: Effects of COVID-19 on the Heart, What We Know, by Dr. Aaron Kugelmass, Baystates vice president and medical director of heart and vascular services and chief of cardiology.

Increasingly, long-term complications, including heart inflammation that can impact the organs ability to pump, are being observed in a certain percentage of patients who have recovered from the life-threatening respiratory disease. This presentation is described in some studies as postacute COVID-19, meaning the persistence of symptoms beyond three weeks of onset and, in chronic cases, beyond 12 weeks.

Lingering symptoms range from fatigue to organ dysfunction believed linked to tissue damage from SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes the disease and whose infections can be particularly severe in those with existing medical conditions.

An interventional cardiologist, Kugelmass will address the possible impact of a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection on the heart and what treatments are available to address it.

Other presenters in the hour-long lecture series include:

The lectures are free but registration is required for each session and may be done online at baystatehealth.org

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Baystate Health cardiovascular lectures go remote; opens with focus on COVID impact on heart - masslive.com