A new study associates Covid with these diseases: there is a greater risk of contracting them

People infected with covid-19 remain at elevated risk of death for at least 18 months after infection. That is the main conclusion of a study in which nearly 160,000 people in the UK participated and published in ‘Cardiovascular Research’, journal of the European Society of Cardiology.

According to the study, covid-19 is Associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death in the short and long term. Compared with uninfected people, COVID-19 patients were up to 81 times more likely to die in the first three weeks of infection and remained five times more likely up to 18 months later. “Covid-19 patients were more likely to develop numerous cardiovascular conditions compared to uninfected participants, which may have contributed to their higher risks of death,” says Ian CK Wong, from the University of Hong Kong, China. .

Wong notes that this finding indicates that patients with this disease should be monitored for at least one year after recovery from acute illness to diagnose the possible cardiovascular complications of the infection, which are part of persistent Covid.

The diseases that present the greatest risk after passing the Covid

The study compares the appearance of cardiovascular conditions and death in infected and non-infected people before December 2020, when there were no vaccines available to stop the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 7,500 infected patients of covid-19 diagnosed between March 16 and November 30, 2020 were identified by the UK Biobank. Each was matched with up to 10 people without the disease during the study period (March 16, 2020 to August 31, 2021) and a historical pre-pandemic cohort (March 16, 2018 to November 30, 2018). ).

Each uninfected group had more than 70,000 participants who were similar to the covid-19 group in terms of age, sex, smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular and other diseases, body mass index, ethnicity, and deprivations. In all three groups, the average age was 66 years and there were almost the same number of women and men.

Data were obtained from death and medical records for outcomes that included major cardiovascular disease and other conditions. These are the most common notifications:

• Heart failure.
• Cerebrovascular accident.
• Coronary heart disease.
• Apoplexy.
• atrial fibrillation.
• Myocardial infarction.
• Death from cardiovascular disease.

Associations were assessed for the acute phase (within the 21 days after covid-19 diagnosis) and the post-acute (from the 22 days after diagnosis and continuing until 18 months).

Other conclusions of the study

Compared with the two uninfected cohorts, patients with covid-19 had four times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease important in the acute phase 40% more in the post-acute.

Regarding uninfected people, the risk of death in patients with coronavirus was up to 81 times higher in the acute phase and five times higher in the post-acute phase. People with severe COVID-19 were more likely to develop major cardiovascular disease or die than non-severe cases.

In addition, patients with covid-19 had a higher likelihood of various cardiovascular conditions compared with uninfected participants both short and long term, including myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and deep vein thrombosis.

The risks of some cardiovascular conditions – for example, stroke and atrial fibrillation– increased in covid-19 patients in the short term, but then returned to normal levels.

Hector Bueno, from National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC)from Madrid, points out that the pandemic has caused “a great impact on patients with cardiovascular diseases, who were less likely to receive optimal care during the pandemic and more likely to die from the infection.”

“This study shows that covid-19 also increases the risk of cardiovascular complications and death in the first weeks after infection and remains high for months, suggesting that the Specific cardiovascular monitoring may be appropriate in these patients.“, he concludes.