A study has shown that even after recovery from COVID-19, the aftereffects are severe, increasing the risk of heart attack, cardiac arrest, and death even three years after infection.
CNN reported that a paper containing this information was published in the medical journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB).
The study was based on the medical records of approximately 250,000 patients listed in the U.K.’s large-scale patient database, U.K. Biobank.
The research team analyzed the medical records of over 11,000 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2020, including approximately 3,000 who were hospitalized due to the infection, and compared them to the records of 222,000 people in the same database who had not been infected with COVID-19 during that period.
The results showed that individuals infected with COVID-19 in 2020, prior to the development of vaccines, had double the risk of experiencing a heart attack, cardiac arrest, or death about three years later compared to those who had not been infected.
Furthermore, those hospitalized due to COVID-19 experienced even more severe aftereffects, with the probability of heart disease being more than three times higher than that of non-infected individuals.
The research team concluded that the aftereffects of COVID-19 do not gradually diminish over time.
Dr. Stanley Hazen, a co-author of the paper and chair of the Department of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences at the Cleveland Clinic in the U.S., said there is no sign that the risk is diminishing and added that the most shocking finding of the study is that the risk does not decrease over time.
Dr. Patricia Best, a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, also commented that the study results highlight the shocking and unique characteristics of COVID-19.
Dr. Best noted that it has long been known that the risk of heart attacks increases due to infections, stating that both bacterial and viral infections, including influenza, elevate the risk of heart attacks. However, she pointed out that this risk typically disappears quickly after recovery from the infection.
She added that this study shows that the risk of COVID-19 does not disappear even long after recovery, suggesting that it differs from other infectious diseases.
Meanwhile, the research team stated that they still do not know the exact reason why the risk of cardiovascular disease and death remains high for an extended period after recovering from COVID-19.
