Covid patients maintain a high risk of death for at least 18 months after infection. This is what a study conducted on almost 160,000 people and published in ‘Cardiovascular Research’, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (Esc), suggests. According to the authors, scientists from the University of Hong Kong, Covid-19 is associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease and death in the short and long term. Compared to uninfected people, the likelihood of Covid patients dying was up to 81 times higher in the first 3 weeks of infection and remained 5 times higher up to 18 months later.
“Covid patients – explains Ian CK Wong of the University of Hong Kong, author of the work – were more likely to develop several cardiovascular conditions” than study participants unaffected by the virus“which may have contributed to their higher risks of death. The results – highlights the expert – therefore indicate that patients with Covid should be monitored for at least a year after recovery from acute illness to diagnose cardiovascular complications of the infection , which are part of the Long Covid”.
The study compared the occurrence of cardiovascular disease and death in infected and uninfected people recruited before December 2020, when no vaccines were available in the UK. More than 7,500 patients diagnosed with the infection from 16 March 2020 to 30 November 2020 have been identified by the UK Biobank. Each was matched with up to 10 Covid-free people during the study period (which ran from March 2020 to August 2021) and a historical pre-pandemic cohort (March-November 2018). Each no-Covid group had more than 70,000 participants, similar to that of the Covid group in terms of age, gender, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular and other diseases, body mass index, ethnicity and economic deprivation. In all three groups the mean age was 66 years and the number of women and men was nearly equal.
“The control cohort” pre-pandemic, the scientists point out, “was included to exclude the effect of the reduction or cancellation of routine health services” during the Covid crisis, “which led to worsening health and a increased mortality even in uninfected people”. Compared to the two uninfected groups, Covid patients were about 4 times more likely to develop major cardiovascular disease in the acute phase and 40% more in the post-acute phase. Compared to the uninfected, the risk of death in Covid patients was up to 81 times higher in the acute phase and 5 times higher in the post-acute phase. Patients with severe Covid were more likely to develop major cardiovascular disease or die than non-severe cases.
In general, infected people were more likely than non-infected people to develop, both in the short and long term, pathologies such as myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, heart failure and deep vein thrombosis. The risks of some cardiovascular conditions, such as stroke and atrial fibrillation, were elevated in the short term but then returned to normal levels.
If this study was conducted during the first pandemic wave, “future research – notes Wong – should evaluate subsequent outbreaks”. And investigate, the experts conclude, also on the possible efficacy of vaccines in reducing cardiovascular risks and post-infection exhibitions.