Evidence for cardiovascular dysfunction

A note for any of us who notice cardiac symptoms being called out as 'serious' and caused by covid.
It may be worth calling attentions to these symptoms being part of CFS too, and are another reason to suspect that the various experiences of the 'long tail' of covid may 'just' be CFS, and nothing special to this virus.
(Apart from a seperate symptom set caused in the very ill by blood clotting and lung capacity issues)

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/internalmedicine/48/21/48_21_1849/_article
A paper from 2009. Cardiovascular dysfunction with low cardiac output due to a small heart in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome

Electrocardiograms frequently revealed right axis deviation (21%) and severe sinus arrhythmia (34%) suggesting accentuated parasympathetic nervous activity. Small heart shadow (cardiothoracic ratio ≤42%) was noted on the chest roentgenogram in 32 patients (60%). Echocardiographic examination demonstrated low cardiac indexes (<2 L/min/m2) with low stroke volume indexes (<30 mL/m2) due to a small left ventricular chamber in 19 (36%, p<0.05 vs. 8% in 36 controls). None had reduced left ventricular ejection fraction.
Conclusion Cardiovascular symptoms are common in CFS patients. Cardiac dysfunction with low cardiac output due to small left ventricular chamber may contribute to the development of chronic fatigue as a constitutional factor in a considerable number of CFS patients.

Significant sinus arhythmia here, 30 years on from a disease unlikely to be covid-19. Manifested at the same time as CFS, and remains when I have the severest symptoms.

(This paper has a forum thread here:
(2009) Cardiovascular Dysfunction with Low Cardiac Output Due to a Small Heart in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Miwa et al)

 

I can't quite remember the details but the NIH did a study which showed cardiac problems in ME/CFS. A second study by Natelson was started but the results were never published. As a community we were left with the knowledge we may have cardiac problems but all research was dropped!

Dr Cheney looked at his patients and said they all had signs of diastolic heart failure.

In the early 80s it was said that people with ME were dying of heart problems by forcing themselves to exercise but it was never put down to ME. A UK MP was told to exercise and died of a heart attack using the House of Commons gym.

A neglected aspect of ME one way or the other.

 

This MP:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brynmor_John

 

Conclusion
Patients with CFS have markedly reduced cardiac mass and blood pool volumes, particularly end-diastolic volume: this results in significant impairments in stroke volume and cardiac output compared to controls. The CFS group appeared to have a delay in the release of torsion.

Publication
Journal of Internal Medicine, 2012 Mar; 71(3):264–70

https://www.meresearch.org.uk/our-research/completed-studies/cardiac-function/

 

There was another study that found radial wall thickening among other things and I tentatively linked it to Complex V dysfunction found by Fisher et al in this
Post : https://www.s4me.info/threads/an-is...ssailidis-et-al-2019.11121/page-3#post-203091

EDIT : I just realised that this is the same paper as posted above by @Sly Saint