Study reveals long-term cardiovascular risks from COVID-19

The research shows that COVID-19 patients face a significantly higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and death, with the risk persisting for up to three years after infection.

Those who experienced severe cases had a nearly fourfold higher risk, with individuals having blood types A, B, or AB being particularly vulnerable, while blood type O was associated with a lower risk. These findings underscore the long-term cardiovascular dangers posed by COVID-19 and suggest that severe cases should be considered a potential new risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. However, further research involving more diverse populations and vaccinated individuals is necessary to confirm these results, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

A recent study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that COVID-19 infection significantly raised the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death for up to three years in unvaccinated individuals who contracted the virus early in the pandemic. This increased risk was evident even in those without pre-existing heart conditions, supporting earlier research that linked COVID-19 infection to a heightened likelihood of cardiovascular events.

This study is the first to suggest that this elevated risk could persist for as long as three years, particularly for those who were infected during the first wave of the pandemic. The study, published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, found that individuals who contracted COVID-19 early in the pandemic were twice as likely to experience cardiovascular events compared to those who never had the virus. For those who experienced severe cases, the risk was nearly quadrupled.

“This study sheds new light on the potential long-term cardiovascular effects of COVID-19, a still-looming public health threat,” said Dr. David Goff, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which funded much of the research. “These results, especially if confirmed by longer-term follow-up, support efforts to identify effective heart disease prevention strategies for patients who’ve had severe COVID-19. But more studies are needed to demonstrate effectiveness.”

The study is also the first to suggest that the increased risk of heart attack and stroke in patients with severe COVID-19 may be influenced by genetic factors related to blood type. Researchers found that hospitalization for COVID-19 more than doubled the risk of heart attack or stroke for patients with blood types A, B, or AB, while those with blood type O seemed to face a lower risk of severe complications. The scientists analyzed data from 10,000 individuals enrolled in the UK Biobank, a large biomedical database of European patients. The participants, aged 40 to 69, included 8,000 who tested positive for COVID-19 and 2,000 who were hospitalized with severe cases of the virus between February and December 2020. Since vaccines were not available at that time, none of the participants were vaccinated.

By Naila Huseynova