Having a previous COVID-19 infection can double the risk of experiencing a heart attack, stroke, or death in the long term, new research has found.
Research has shown that COVID-19 — a respiratory infection — can also impact the heart, and new research details just how serious the virus’ impact on the cardiovascular system can be.
The new study, led by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Southern California, found that individuals who’ve previously had COVID-19 were twice as likely to have a major cardiac event including heart attack, stroke, and death. That heightened risk, according to the study, can last for up to three years following an infection.
The risk was found to be even higher for those who had a serious case of the virus and were hospitalized with it — a factor that was found to be an even stronger predictor than a history of heart disease.
Published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, the study also found that blood type had a major impact on risk level. Individuals with A, B, and AB blood types were found to face double the risk of a post-COVID cardiovascular event than those with an O blood type.
Previous research has also shown that the three former blood types may also be more likely to contract the virus in the first place.
The findings are particularly significant given that more than a billion people worldwide have been infected with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
Researchers conducted the study using UK Biobank data from 10,005 people who were infected with COVID-19 and 217,730 people who weren’t between February to December of 2020.
“These findings reveal while it’s an upper respiratory tract infection, COVID-19 has a variety of health implications and underscores that we should consider history of prior COVID-19 infection when formulating cardiovascular disease preventive plans and goals,” said co-senior study author Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., chair of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences in Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, in a statement.
The researchers say the finding that blood type plays a role is particularly significant given that 60% of the world has a non-O blood type. They explain that the finding suggests a potential interaction between COVID-19 and the part of an individual’s genetic code that determines blood type. They say a better understanding of what COVID-19 does at the molecular level is needed to understand how it impacts the cardiovascular system.
Overall, the results demonstrate that COVID continues to pose a significant global health threat, the researchers say.
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