About: The mandatory use of facemasks is a public health measure implemented by various countries in response to the novel coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, there have been case reports of sudden cardiac death (SCD) with the wearing of facemasks during exercise. In this paper, we hypothesize that exercise with facemasks may increase the risk of ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) leading to SCD via the development of acute and/or intermittent hypoxia and hypercapnia. We discuss the potential underlying mechanisms including increases in adrenergic stimulation and oxidative stress leading to electrophysiological abnormalities that promote arrhythmias via non-reentrant and reentrant mechanisms. Given the interplay of multiple variables contributing to the increased arrhythmic risk, we advise avoidance of a facemask during high intensity exercise, or if wearing of a mask is mandatory, exercise intensity should remain low to avoid precipitation of lethal arrhythmias. However, we cannot exclude the possibility of an arrhythmic substrate even with low intensity exercise especially in those with established chronic cardiovascular disease in whom baseline electrophysiological abnormalities may be found.   Goto Sponge  NotDistinct  Permalink

An Entity of Type : fabio:Abstract, within Data Space : wasabi.inria.fr associated with source document(s)

AttributesValues
type
value
  • The mandatory use of facemasks is a public health measure implemented by various countries in response to the novel coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, there have been case reports of sudden cardiac death (SCD) with the wearing of facemasks during exercise. In this paper, we hypothesize that exercise with facemasks may increase the risk of ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) leading to SCD via the development of acute and/or intermittent hypoxia and hypercapnia. We discuss the potential underlying mechanisms including increases in adrenergic stimulation and oxidative stress leading to electrophysiological abnormalities that promote arrhythmias via non-reentrant and reentrant mechanisms. Given the interplay of multiple variables contributing to the increased arrhythmic risk, we advise avoidance of a facemask during high intensity exercise, or if wearing of a mask is mandatory, exercise intensity should remain low to avoid precipitation of lethal arrhythmias. However, we cannot exclude the possibility of an arrhythmic substrate even with low intensity exercise especially in those with established chronic cardiovascular disease in whom baseline electrophysiological abnormalities may be found.
Subject
  • Senescence
  • Cardiac arrhythmia
  • Causes of death
  • Liquid-solid separation
  • Medical emergencies
  • RTT
  • RTTEM
part of
is abstract of
is hasSource of
Faceted Search & Find service v1.13.91 as of Mar 24 2020


Alternative Linked Data Documents: Sponger | ODE     Content Formats:       RDF       ODATA       Microdata      About   
This material is Open Knowledge   W3C Semantic Web Technology [RDF Data]
OpenLink Virtuoso version 07.20.3229 as of Jul 10 2020, on Linux (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu), Single-Server Edition (94 GB total memory)
Data on this page belongs to its respective rights holders.
Virtuoso Faceted Browser Copyright © 2009-2024 OpenLink Software