Faculty of Medicine of Porto studies the impact of Covid-19 on cardiac function Start › News < back 30 Apr 2020 The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP) is conducting research to assess the influence of Covid-19 on cardiac function. The goal is to "improve the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac tissue injury in infected patients." The faculty hopes to be able to clarify how the new coronavirus influences cardiac function in the most severe cases of the disease. In a note sent to the newsrooms, FMUP reveals that it wants to "understand if the virus infects cardiac tissue and how the heart is affected by exaggerated systemic inflammatory activation". In addition to answering these two questions, the group of researchers also hopes to identify which susceptibility factors contribute to the development of cardiac dysfunction in response to COVID-19. According to the research coordinator, Roberto Roncon de Albuquerque, “cardiac tissue damage is frequent in infected patients”, but, nevertheless, “the mechanisms, the diagnostic approach and a possible treatment remain largely unknown”. In order to obtain new answers in the fight against the pandemic, researchers and professors at FMUP will accompany a group of patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João (CHUSJ) for a period of approximately three months. According to the faculty, the project has a financing of 30 thousand euros and is one of the 66 that will be supported by the support line for research and development of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), created with the objective of improving the response of the National Health Service in combating the pandemic by COVID-19. Renaissance Apr, 2020 Henry Cunha