Incidence of cardiac complications following COVID-19 infection: An umbrella meta-analysis study.

Most included primary studies were from China, so the findings may not apply everywhere. The work measured new cardiac complications during COVID-19 illness, not pre-existing or overall prevalence of cardiac disease. Several estimates had very high variation between studies, so the pooled percentages are uncertain. Many reviews shared the same primary studies, and removing duplicate data lowered several effect sizes and widened confidence intervals. Publication bias could only be checked for acute myocardial injury, not most other estimates. Some complications, such as pericardial effusion, cardiac insufficiency, cardiomyopathy, and myocardial infarction, were reported in too few reviews to pool reliably. The included reviews were based on observational studies, not tests of treatment or monitoring.

Do not conclude that routine cardiac monitoring will reduce death or ICU admission. The paper reports incidence and associations from observational reviews, not a tested monitoring intervention.