COVID-19 Increases Heart Attack Risk by 52% [Reading Science]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Even mild cases of COVID-19 significantly increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes after recovery.

A research team from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, recently reached this conclusion by using and analyzing data from the U.S. federal government's Veterans Affairs (VA) database.

The researchers compared and analyzed the health records of 150,000 individuals who survived at least 30 days after contracting COVID-19 with two groups of non-infected individuals. Specifically, they compared the health records of about 5 million people who received VA medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic with those of a similar-sized group who used VA medical services in 2017, before the pandemic, and with the infected group.

The results showed that people who recovered from COVID-19 were much more likely to suffer from heart attacks, arrhythmias, strokes, transient ischemic attacks, heart failure, inflammatory heart disease, cardiac arrest, pulmonary embolism, and deep vein thrombosis within one year afterward. For example, the rate of heart attacks was 52% higher compared to the control group. The risk of heart failure was also 72% higher, resulting in 12 more cases per 1,000 patients. Overall, the infected group had a likelihood of 45 out of 1,000 of developing at least one of 20 types of cardiovascular diseases.

However, the study has limitations as most subjects were elderly, white, and male. Approximately 90% of patients in the three comparison groups were male, 71-76% were white, and the average age was in the early 60s.

Hosein Ardehali, a cardiologist at Northwestern University, said, "I was truly surprised to confirm that cardiovascular complications caused by COVID-19 last this long," adding, "Especially since the risk of complications is much higher in severe cases than in mild ones, it is important to get vaccinated against COVID-19 immediately."