**2.2 Eligibility criteria**

The period reported in the literature ranged from December 2019 to March 2020 since the pandemic started in this period. Compilation of the data was performed in April 2020. Manuscript selection occurred primarily through the analysis of titles and abstracts. Article analysis followed the eligibility criteria: (1) At least a combination of the terms described in the search strategy were present in the title or words that refer to the theme; (2) Articles written in English, Portuguese or Spanish; (3) Articles addressing cardiovascular impact of COVID-19 pandemic; (4) Papers repeated in more than one database were computed only once; (5) Original papers with the full text available through in a virtual library created by the Brazilian Ministry of Health where content is restricted to authorized users - the CAPES (Coordination of Personal Improvement of Higher Level) Periodicals Portal. Thesis, dissertations, and monographs were excluded. Some articles were excluded because they generally approached other viruses/pandemics or the sample was children.


*Cardiovascular System and SARS-CoV-2: Etiology, Physiopathology and Clinical Presentation… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97076*



*Cardiovascular System and SARS-CoV-2: Etiology, Physiopathology and Clinical Presentation… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97076*

> **Table 1.** *Main Findings.*

#### *Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic*

To ensure trustworthiness of the findings, data collection was performed, individually, by two researchers with divergences being solved by a third senior researcher.

Each sample article was thoroughly read and the information was inserted in a spreadsheet (**Table 1**), including the author, publishing year and main study findings. According to the PRISMA protocol (http://www.prisma- statement.org/).
