A recent study supports the idea that COVID-19 can cause long-term heart problems.
An analysis of US health data found that COVID-19 patients were at increased risk of heart complications for at least one year after infection.
These complications include heart rhythm problems, inflammation, blood clots, stroke, coronary artery disease, heart attack, to heart failure and death, according to findings published recently in the journal Nature Medicine.
"For people who are clearly at risk for heart disease prior to SARS-CoV-2 infection, these findings suggest that COVID-19 may increase that risk," said senior author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington at St. Louis, USA, quoted from United Press International.
"But most remarkably, people who have never had a heart problem and are considered to be at low risk also develop heart problems after COVID-19."
These risks include young and old, men and women, people of all races, people with obesity and those without. In addition, people with and without diabetes, those with a history of heart disease and those without it, people with mild COVID-19 infection, and those hospitalized with severe disease are also at risk.
For the study, his team analyzed US Department of Veterans Affairs health system data on nearly 154,000 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 between March 1, 2020 and January 15, 2021, and were declared survivors in the first 30 days of the illness.
Very few are immunized because a COVID-19 vaccine was not yet widely available when data were collected.
Those patients were compared with more than 5.6 million patients who did not have COVID-19 during that period and with more than 5.8 million patients seen by the VA health system before the pandemic (March 2018 to January 2019).
The researchers found that in the year after they were infected, COVID-19 patients had a 4% higher rate of heart disease, including heart failure and death, than those without COVID-19.
"Some people might think 4% is a small number, but it's not, given the magnitude of the pandemic," said Al-Aly.
That means, about 3 million Americans have heart complications from COVID-19.
Compared to the control group, COVID-19 patients had a 72% higher risk of coronary artery disease, a 63% higher risk of heart attack, and a 52% higher risk of stroke.
Overall, these patients had a 55% higher risk of major adverse cardiovascular events that included heart attack, stroke, and death.
So far, more than 380 million people worldwide have suffered from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
"As a result, COVID-19 infection has so far contributed to 15 million new cases of heart disease worldwide. This is quite significant. For anyone who has ever been infected, heart health becomes an integral part of post-acute COVID care," said Al-Aly.
Apart from heart problems, COVID can also cause other complications known collectively as long COVID. Al-Aly said the findings highlight the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 as a way to prevent heart damage.