TUESDAY, June 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Doctors have long noted links between severe COVID-19 and heart trouble, but a new study helps quantify the magnitude of the problem.

The study of hundreds of hospitalized patients found that cardiac arrest and heart rhythm disorders are 10 times more common among COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care than among other hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Just why the risk soars so high in the ICU isn't clear, but it's likely tied to the stresses of advanced illness, not a direct activity of the new coronavirus upon the heart, said study senior author Dr. Rajat Deo. He's a cardiac electrophysiologist and associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

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