| COVID-19 plus drug use can increase chance of sometimes fatal heart infection, new study shows ideastream: Rong Xu, professor at the School of Medicine, discussed her new research showing people who take opioids or cocaine are more susceptible to developing endocarditis, a life-threatening condition in which the inner lining of the heart's chambers and valves becomes inflamed. “As the scientific understanding of long COVID develops, we can now include endocarditis as one long-term effect on key organ systems for people who inject drugs. Our study is one of the first to show this,” she said. |
