‘Significant implications’: Covid linked to huge spike in heart attacks years later

A new study published years after the Covid pandemic ravaged the world has revealed a concerning and “signficant” new find.

People who have had coronavirus are at twice the risk of a heart attack or stroke years after clearing the infection, a “significant” new study has found.

Conducted by the Cleveland Clinic and University of Southern California, research published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology used the UK Biobank data of 10,005 people who had Covid and 217,730 people who didn’t between February and December 2020.

The cardiologists involved found that those with any type of Covid infection were twice as likely to have a “major cardiac event”, such as heart attack, stroke or even death, for up to three years after contracting the virus.

The risk was significantly higher for patients who had been hospitalised for Covid, making them four times more likely to develop cardiovascular problems than those who had never been infected.

Chair of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences at Cleveland Clinic’s Lener Research Institute and co-senior study author, Dr Stanley Hazen, said the findings could not be underestimated.

“Worldwide over a billion people have already experienced Covid-19. The findings reported are not a small effect in a small subgroup,” Dr Hazen said.

“The results included nearly a quarter of a million people and point to a finding of global healthcare importance that promises to translate into a rise in cardiovascular disease globally.”

People who have had coronavirus are at twice the risk of heart attack or stroke years after clearing the infection. Picture: Handout/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases /AFP

The study, based on adults between the age of 50 and 86, was conducted before vaccines combating the disease became available.

While Covid is an upper respiratory tract infection, Dr Hazen said his team’s research emphasises the “variety of health implications” wrought by the virus.

“(It also) underscores that we should consider history of prior Covid-19 infection when formulating cardiovascular disease preventive plans and goals,” he added.

“The association uncovered by our research indicates a potential interaction between the virus and the piece of our genetic code that determines blood type and signals the need for further investigation.

“A better understanding of what Covid-19 does at the molecular level may potentially teach us about pathways linked to cardiovascular disease risk.”

Chair of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences at Cleveland Clinic’s Lener Research Institute and co-senior study author, Dr Stanley Hazen. Picture: Supplied

The research comes as doctors across the globe search for clues as to why fatal heart attacks in people under 45 are increasingly common.

A study conducted in September 2022 by Los Angeles’ Cedars Sinai hospital found those aged 25 to 44 had seen a 29.9 per increase in heart attack deaths over the first two years of the pandemic (making the actual number almost 30 per cent higher than predicted).

“Young people are obviously not really supposed to die of heart attack. They’re not really supposed to have heart attacks at all,” Cedars Sinai cardiologist and co-author of the study, Dr Susan Cheng, told the US TODAY show earlier this year.

The risk was significantly higher for patients who had been hospitalised for Covid.

Dr Cheng said the connection between the virus and fatal heart attacks was “more than coincidental, that is for sure”.

“(Covid) appears to be able to increase the stickiness of the blood and increase … the likelihood of blood clot formation,” she explained.

“It seems to stir up inflammation in the blood vessels. It seems to also cause in some people an overwhelming stress – whether it’s related directly to the infection or situations around the infection – that can also cause a spike in blood pressure.”

The University of Southern California’s Dr Hooman Allayee, a co-senior author of the more recent study, said the findings have “significant clinical implications”.

They also show the long-term risk associated with Covid “continues to pose a significant public health burden”, prompting a need for further, widespread investigation.

“Given our collective observations … our study raises important questions about whether more aggressive cardiovascular risk reduction efforts should be considered, possibly by taking into consideration an individual’s genetic makeup,” Dr Allayee said.