Covid 19: A research study has found that people who died of Covid-19 had significant changes in the heart muscle tissue and these are known to damage the arteries of the heart. This has been revealed by a research team from the University of Göttingen and Hanover Medical School.


In the conclusion of this study, published in the 'eLife Journal', the researchers said that this area was the main investigation of lung tissue damage for some time and now it has been fully investigated. The present study has for the first time outlined the effects of COVID-19 infection on the heart at a microscopic level by imaging and analyzing the affected tissue in three dimensions.

The scientists used synchrotron radiation (specifically bright X-ray radiation) to photograph the tissue texture with high-resolution cameras and display it in three-dimensional (3D) form. To do this, they used a special X-ray microscope that the University of Göttingen has installed at the German Electron Synchrotron Desee in Hamburg. When they examined the effects of the severe form of the COVID-19 disease, they saw clear changes at the level of cells (small blood vessels) in the heart muscle tissue.

X-ray images of tissue affected by severe disease showed a network of divided, branched, and loopy, re-formed, and divided again to form new tubules or veins, compared to a healthy heart. These changes were associated with lung damage during the COVID-19 infection. A special type of 'intussusceptive angiogen' was found in the tissue, which means 'new vein formation'.

To visualize the cell network, the first three-dimensional quantities of tubules had to be identified using machine learning methods. This initially required researchers to manually set up the data from the photographs.

To speed up the processing of photographs, we automatically broke down the tissue texture into its locally symmetric features and then compared them, explained Marius Reichardt, first author of the research paper at the University of Göttingen.

The lead of the study, Professor Tim Saldit and Professor Danny Zoning from the University of Göttingen explained that the parameters obtained from this showed a completely different quality than that of healthy tissue, or even diseases such as severe influenza or common myocarditis. He said that this is very important research.