2.1 Autonomic nervous system
It was well-established that brain damage can cause CVD complications, ranging from blood pressure disorders to arrhythmias. Abnormal cardiac afferent signals enhanced sustained sympathetic nerve activity and led to loss of cardiovascular protection, causing the progression of CVD, including arrhythmia-triggered sudden death [10]. Among the 416 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, almost 20% suffered from a cardiac injury. In another study, 44% of 36 intensive care unit patients developed arrhythmia [6, 11]. Although it was currently believed that the reason for the high incidence of arrhythmia was related to myocardial injury triggered by COVID-19 [12], the possibility that the brain damage in COVID-19 patients induces arrhythmias by disturbing cardiac autonomic nervous system cannot be ignored.