COVID-19 could increase the risk of major cardiac events like strokes and heart attacks according to a new study from the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, the University of California, Los Angeles and Cleveland Clinic released on Wednesday.
The findings revealed individuals with A, B and AB blood types that contracted a severe version of COVID-19 are more likely to have future heart problems than people with an O blood type who previously had a severe version of COVID-19.
“This study underscores that we should consider history of prior COVID-19 infection when formulating cardiovascular disease preventive plans and goals,” said co-senior author Stanley Hazen.
The study which took place for 1,003 days showed patients hospitalized for COVID-19 that had no history of heart disease had the same or slightly higher risk of a major cardiac event than people with heart disease that did not get COVID-19.
The researchers utilized data from 10,005 unvaccinated people in the UK Biobank who had COVID-19 and 217,730 people who did not get infected between February 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. The researchers then looked for links between severity of COVID-19 infection and major cardiac events over approximately three years.
Researchers discovered that COVID-19 hospitalization can be considered a coronary artery disease (CAD) risk equivalent, a term for a condition that increases risk for future strokes, heart attacks and other problems.
“We’re the first ones to really approach this link from a clinical guidelines standpoint with the CAD equivalence analysis, which can help demonstrate to physicians the potential benefits of taking preventive action,” said James Hilser, the study’s first author.
