'Cardiac complications may be more common' with coronavirus, doctor says

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New fears that COVID-19 may be linked to heart problems

Can coronavirus cause cardiac complications? Insight from Dr. Michael Orlov, cardiologist at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center.

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Dr. Michael Orlov, cardiologist at Boston's St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, appeared on "The Ingraham Angle" where he spoke about a problem involving the coronavirus and cardiac complications.

"The initial data from China showed that the effect of coronavirus on the heart is relatively small. So it was seen in about 8 percent of patients who get severe, severe cardiac problems and lesser, lesser cardiac problems were observed a little bit more frequently," Orlov said Thursday. "However, that data may be changing coming out of Italy, in Europe, where we hear more alarming results that cardiac complications may be more common."

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Orlov told Ingraham that in cases in the United States doctors are seeing "late complications on the heart."

"So this is alarming. This is unknown we don't have the data. The data is coming," Orlov said. "But when something is unknown and alarming, that obviously creates fear. So we need the data to clarify that and alleviate the fears. And that will probably clear the path to go forward."

The doctor also told Ingraham that there were worries that health care professionals didn't have enough equipment to deal with the "complex treatment" needed to address cardiac issues.

"Cardiac complications also very complex and require complex treatment and complex devices to help to support the body while it's finding the virus into those devices are in relatively short supply," Orlov said. "We need to be prepared to be quickly equipped for them. Mobilize those... heart, lung machines... to support the body. And we don't know how many of those we need."

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Orlov also commented on the president's recent comments on the drug hydroxychloroquine.

"My concern is the hydroxychloroquine is supposedly manufactured only by one producer and we need to make, if it's active, we need to make it quickly available like many, many other things that are lagging, that are missing," Orlov said.