Robert Smith, MD, MSc, FACC, FSCAI Profile picture
Interventional Cardiologist at Oklahoma Heart Institute🏈OU 🏨Emory🏨Tulane🏨Vanderbilt🏨UF tweets and opinions my own
Jul 11, 2020 9 tweets 4 min read
@pdubdev It is not known exactly why some patients become very ill while others never have symptoms. A number of risk factors have been identified and include obesity (a big one), advancing age (the biggest one), hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and any major comorbid condition. @pdubdev Another really interesting idea is emerging that specifically has to do with the immune system. Everyone knows that we make antibodies to infection, but we also make “memory cells” (T cells). There are emerging suggestions that large swaths of the population ALREADY HAVE memory
Jul 11, 2020 26 tweets 5 min read
On the topic of hydroxychloroquine and arrhythmia: many commonly used drugs are associated with a small risk of arrhythmia. The phenomenon is called QT prolongation. This occurs when the relaxation phase of the cardiac cycle (repolarization of the ventricle during diastole) is slowed. It can be slowed so much that the incoming signal for the heart to contract comes when the heart is still in the relaxation phase. These discordant signals can trigger an arrhythmia that, if not treated right away, can be fatal. Sounds bad. Fortunately, it is extremely