Russian medical society expert consensus on arterial hypertension: arterial hypertension and Post-COVID syndrome

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a second pandemic, "post-COVID", in people with persistent symptoms after an acute period of coronavirus infection. Most coronavirus patients fully recovered on average within two weeks, but about one in ten people feel long-term symptoms, such as respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous and psychological. Post-COVID symptoms are disparate, various and difficult to interpret. There are no standardized diagnostic methods and generally accepted criteria for verifying post-COVID syndrome now. WHO presented a universal definition of post-COVID syndrome or post-COVID conditions in October 2021. Blood pressure should be observed in post-COVID syndrome due to high prevalence of hypertension in patients with COVID-19. Epidemiology, risk factors and pathophysiology of post-COVID syndrome presents in expert’s consensus of Russian Society of Hypertension. The mechanisms of impairment to the cardiovascular system were analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the clinical features and manifestations of hypertension in post-COVID syndrome, to pathophysiological mechanisms of blood pressure destabilization and further treatment strategy.