Long form Covid-19 increases risk of heart conditions up to a year, finds study

The third wave of the coronavirus pandemic has affected a fairly larger part of the population than the first two waves but with lesser severity and cases of hospitalisation. Even though it has made the affected prone to future health issues. A study  based in the United States has found that Covid-19 puts people at a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular diseases upto an year after infection. The chances are as high as the severity of the infection.

The study was conducted on 150,000 people  who were infected with Covid-19 in the United States and was based on healthcare databases from the US department of Veterans Affairs and published in the journal Nature Medicine on Monday.

The findings suggest that if the infection persists beyond 30 days they Covid infected people have higher risk of getting cardiovascular issues like ischemic heart disease, dysrhythmias, heart failure, inflammatory heart disease and thromboembolic disease. There were also added health risks with added health care costs, chances of mortality etc.

Ziyad Al-Aly, director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center, at Veterans Affairs St Louis Health Care System in a tweet mentioned that because of the chronic nature of these conditions, they have long lasting ramifications on health , life expectancy and even broader implications like economic productivity.

The analysis also included records of 5.6 million people who did not have Covid-19  and another 5.8 million of those from before the pandemic to compare how cardiovascular diseases differed pre and post pandemic.

Risk and disease burden

The study found some of the diseases that has the highest chance of developing  after Covid-19- incidents of stroke, myocarditis, increased heart rate, acute coronary disease (impeded blood supply to heart), heart failure, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism (clot in blood vessels).

The diseases vary in terms of mitigation, mortality risk and cost of healthcare. Rapid heart rhythm arrhythmia, heart failure, stroke were found to be contributing  the most to the higher disease burden in one year after Covid-19.

Is Covid-19 only trigger to rising heart issues

The higher risks spanned across all ages, groups of people and regardless of age, gender, race, there were cardiovascular risks including hypertension, chronic kidney, obesity, hyperlipidaemia. In fact, those without any cardiovascular conditions prior to Covid -19  are also at risk of developing it.

The two other key findings from the study are risk and disease burden are most evident in those who were hospitalised during acute phase of the disease and the second that the risk showed a graded increase across severity spectrum (hospitalised, not hospitalised, hospitalised in ICU) in the acute phase of Covid-19.  Thus chances of developing such diseases were high even in those without hospitalisation.

Limitations of study

The researchers maintained that the findings were based on the records of predominantly white, male patients, which could “limit the generalizability of study findings”, the researchers said.

The study, however, emphasized on the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 as a way to prevent heart damage and underscored the importance of increasing accessibility to the vaccines in countries with limited resources.