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.