According to new research, adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) do not have an inherently increased risk for COVID-19 mortality or severe infection. However, physiological stage was a key risk factor.

Investigators noted that among patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19, those across the spectrum of CHD complexity and comorbidity had a case fatality rate of 2.3%, which is comparable with the general population. Presence of a structural CHD was not essentially predictive of an increased risk of mortality or morbidity from COVID-19 infection. In this study of 1,044 infected CHD patients, worse physiological stage (cyanosis, pulmonary hypertension) was found to have a link with mortality, while anatomic complexity and defect group did not. The findings are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology… (Medpage Today)