It’s more than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic has started. During this time, both the virus and scientific understanding of the disease have evolved. It is no longer an acute respiratory infection mainly involving the lungs but a systemic, sometimes subacute or even chronic, process affecting virtually all organs and tissues, including the brain, heart, kidneys and blood vessels.
It is the vascular manifestations of the infection that were addressed in the COSEVAST study conducted by the scientists from All India Institute of Medical Sciences Patna. The preprints of this research were made public last December. If compared to the studies devoted to the microcirculation affected by the COVID-19 infection, this group focused on elasticity changes in the large arteries. Despite the small sample size, a statistically significant increase in the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (i.e. a decrease in aortic elasticity) at increasing severity of the coronavirus infection was demonstrated: 8.29±1.39 m/s in mild disease to 10.67±1.53 and 14.2±2.54 m/s in moderate to severe disease respectively, P < 0.0001.
Reduced aortic elasticity has proven to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular complications and is also an important indicator of the biological age of the individual. Thus, the study not only explores another mechanism of COVID-19 negative impact on the cardiovascular system but also supports the hypothesis that the disease causes premature aging. More detailed information on this issue is likely to be provided by the international CARTESIAN study which still collects the required data.
Neurosoft product portfolio surely includes equipment for functional diagnostics – Poly-Spectrum-PWV module which can expand the application of Poly-Spectrum series ECG recorders. This specific module allows pulse wave velocity recording along elastic (carotid-femoral segment) and muscular (carotid-radial segment) type arteries. Incomparable to some of the analogs, Poly-Spectrum-PWV uses the conventional method of arterial pulse recording rather than approximation based on peripheral pulse wave analysis.
Learn more about Poly-Spectrum-PWV module on our website or contact us by email info@neurosoft.com.