Anyone who has had corona has a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. This is shown by American research among more than 150,000 ex-corona patients. “The more seriously ill you have been, the greater the chance,” says doctor-researcher Marijke Linschoten.
The study shows that people who have had a corona infection have a 63 percent higher chance of having a heart attack. In addition, they are 84 percent more likely to have an arrhythmia of the ventricles and 72 percent more likely to have heart failure than people who have not had corona. In the US alone, this would mean 3 million new heart patients. Worldwide it is estimated to be 15 million patients. However, according to Linschoten of UMC Utrecht, there is an important nuance.
No large influx of new patients yet
“This study looked at all groups of people who got corona, so also the people who have recovered at home. When people have recovered at home, and they have not seen the hospital inside, the risks of heart failure are a lot less than when that is the case.”
Linschoten does not yet see a large influx of new patients in daily practice. “With corona, everything is under a magnifying glass. With the flu, for example, we also do not know whether the risk of cardiovascular disease is greater.”
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Compare with the Netherlands
The study was conducted by the Washington University of Medicine. Before the conclusions of the study were published, the Netherlands was already conducting a similar study. “We are curious how the Dutch figures compare to this American study,” says doctor-researcher Linschoten.
“During the first wave of the pandemic, we anonymously studied 40 percent of all hospital admissions. We are now enriching these with figures of death and cardiovascular disease from Statistics Netherlands.”
Heart thrush
Manon Ossevoort from Hees-Dinther got corona twice with her children. And quite spicy too. She felt like she was 95 percent out of the running for a year. She has a heart murmur, which she did not have before corona. But it is impossible to say whether it is because of corona.
“I suffered a lot from pressure in the chest for a year and a half. I went to a cardiologist with that and then that heart murmur was seen. But otherwise it seems okay with my heart.” After she got corona again last May, the lung covid complaints played up again. “Then I took a vaccination 12 weeks later, as a kind of booster. And then the complaints decreased. And now I don’t have those heart complaints.”
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Call for inquiry
Ossevoort lived for a long time with the feeling that she could have a heart attack every day when exercising. “That feels very uncanny of course.” She hopes there is no permanent damage. “I wish all scientists that they will investigate this very much,” says Ossevoort.
Her son has also been suffering from complaints for 2 years. Getting him examined is very difficult, she says. They are waiting for an ultrasound for him. “We have had to wait for that for 2 years now. We hope that as soon as the pressure on healthcare decreases, we will receive a call.”
ring the bell
“If you experience complaints, you should ring the bell,” responds doctor-researcher Linschoten. “We have seen in the pandemic that people felt a threshold to call the GP or even 112. But ring the bell, then that can be sorted out.”
“At the beginning of the pandemic, little was known about lung covid complaints, but we know that many people have long-term complaints. And we are currently trying to determine that if you walk around with palpitations, or that a sign is from heart damage, or that it is something else,” says Linschoten.
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Vaccination may be the solution
Vaccination may make sense to further reduce the risks. The American investigation took place between March 2020 and February 2021, Linschoten explains. “At that time, vaccines were a lot less available than today. We know the more seriously ill you get, the more risk you run.”
“We know from various studies that vaccinations are very effective in preventing serious diseases from corona. You could therefore say that vaccination has a beneficial effect.”
Treatment gets better
In addition, at the start of the pandemic, we did not know how to treat corona, Linschoten explains.
“At the beginning you heard a lot of problems about blood clots, which is why people who are now hospitalized on corona are given standard blood thinners. So the treatment is also getting better, and the virus is constantly changing.”
Physician-researcher Marijke Linschoten of UMC Utrecht about the risks of cardiovascular disease after corona
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