COVID-19 Infections Increase Risk of Major Cardiac Events, Research Shows

New research in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology shows that “COVID-19 infections increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death, in some cases doubling the likelihood of major cardiac events in the 3 years following infection.” CIDRAP has the news.

Researchers used UK Biobank data from 10,005 people with COVID-19 between February and December 2020 and 217,730 people without. The outcomes they tracked were “major adverse cardiovascular events, including heart attack, stroke, and all-cause death,” through October 31, 2022.

The “risk of a major cardiac event was elevated in COVID-19 patients at all levels of severity (hazard ratio [HR], 2.09; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.94 to 2.25]) and to a greater extent, in those hospitalized for COVID-19 (HR, 3.85; 95% CI, 3.51 to 4.24), the authors said.”

The rate was so high that “hospitalization for COVID-19 was a bigger risk factor for a cardiac event than having cardiovascular disease without COVID-19. Patients with COVID-19 had a 21% greater risk of heart attack, stroke, and death than people with cardiovascular disease without COVID-19 infection.”

Researchers also found that people with “non-O blood types (A, B, A/B) were more likely to suffer a major cardiac event after hospitalization, with an increased risk of thrombotic events in study participants with non-O blood types.”