Heart, brain issues linked to COVID-19

(ANSA) - Rome, April 14 - Experts in the US and Italy say they are seeing signs that the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, may be damaging the hearts, brains and skin of those infected and not only the lungs as was initially thought.
    One of the first cases was described in the Jama Cardiology journal in mid-March by Marco Metra, a cardiologist at the Spedali Civili hospital in Brescia, northern Italy.
    Metra noted at that time that it was important to note "acute myocarditis as a possible complication associated with COVID-19".
    The New York Times then reported in early April that: "Physicians diagnosed a dangerous condition called acute necrotizing encephalopathy, a rare complication of influenza and other viral infections" in a case in Detroit of a woman diagnosed with COVID-19. "The pattern of involvement, and the way that it rapidly progressed over days, is consistent with viral inflammation of the brain," Dr. Elissa Fory, a neurologist with Henry Ford Health System, told the NYT in an email. "This may indicate the virus can invade the brain directly in rare circumstances." Another symptom possibly linked to COVID-19 infection is a sort of chilblains suffered by asymptomatic children. No link has yet been proven but a team of Italian specialists has asked the head of Italy's Higher Health Institute (ISS), Silvio Brusaferro, to look more closely at the possibility after recent reports by French dermatologists.
    Similar cases were reported in patients in China's Wuhan.