According to a new study, COVID-19 causes heart damage that lasts far beyond the earliest stages of the disease. According to the study, persons who have never been unwell enough to require hospitalization are at risk for heart failure and blood clots a year later.
Stroke and heart disease are already the major causes of death around the globe. According to the study, which is being considered for publication in a Nature magazine, the increased chance of deadly heart problems in Covid survivors — who number in the hundreds of millions worldwide — will add to the tragedy.
The study
The study's lead author, Ziyad Al-Aly, head of the clinical epidemiology unit at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System in Missouri, said, "The aftereffects of Covid-19 are severe." "Governments and health-care systems must recognize that Covid will throw a long shadow in the shape of lengthy Covid, with disastrous implications." I'm worried we're not taking this seriously enough."
The researchers discovered that the severity of the first sickness increases the risk of a heart attack, stroke, or other severe cardiovascular events in the first 12 months of Covid recovery. They evaluated the risk of cardiac issues in 151,195 veterans who survived Covid to the risk of heart complications in the general population. They compared the risk of heart issues in 151,195 Covid survivors to the risk of heart complications in more than 3.6 million of their peers who did not get the pandemic disease.
The information was gathered from the United States' largest integrated healthcare system. The majority of its users are white men, which the authors believe limits how generalizable the study's findings are to other populations.
The results
They discovered that non-hospitalized Covid patients had a 39 percent higher chance of heart failure and a 2.2-fold higher risk of a potentially fatal blood clot called a pulmonary embolism in the following year than those who did not develop the disease. For every 1,000 Covid patients who were never hospitalized, this translates to an additional 5.8 incidences of heart failure and 2.8 cases of pulmonary embolism.
The study
The study found that being admitted to the hospital for Covid is linked to a 5.8-fold increased risk of cardiac arrest and a nearly 14-fold increased risk of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle. Patients who needed intensive care at Covid were at a much higher risk, with nearly one in seven having a serious adverse cardiac event within a year that they would not have had otherwise.
What causes COVID sufferers' hearts to deteriorate?
The causes of heart injury in Covid patients are currently being investigated. According to scientists, enduring harm from the direct viral invasion of cardiac muscle cells and blood vessel cells, blood clots, and aberrant and persistent inflammation are all possible pathways.
Indirect consequences of Covid-19, such as social isolation, financial difficulty, changes in food habits and physical activity, as well as trauma and grief, may impact the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to data from natural catastrophes and prior pandemics.
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