COVID-19 Associated with Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Events
A study published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology found the risk of major adverse cardiac events was higher in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
Patients with a COVID-19 infection who require hospitalization are at an increased risk for major adverse cardiac events (MACE), according to research published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.1 The authors of the study said the findings suggest that more aggressive cardiovascular risk reduction efforts may be warranted as part of primary prevention in this patient population.
COVID-19 Associated with Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Events / donfiore - stock.adobe.com
Prior research has shown that patients with COVID-19 have a significantly higher post-acute risk of incident cardiovascular outcomes compared to those without the disease.2 However, there is currently a lack of data on whether certain subgroups of patients with COVID-19 are at a greater risk of adverse cardiovascular disease and whether any of these subgroups rise to the level of a coronary artery disease risk equivalent.
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“Given that more than 1 billion people worldwide have already experienced COVID-19 infection, the implications for global heart health are significant,” Hooman Allayee, PhD, lead author on the study, said in a release.3 “The question now is whether or not severe COVID-19 should be considered another risk factor for cardiovascular disease, much like type 2 diabetes or peripheral artery disease, where treatment focused on cardiovascular disease prevention may be valuable.”
A team of investigators from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California conducted a study to investigate the long-term risk of MACE among COVID-19 patients and whether COVID-19 rises to the level of a coronary artery disease risk equivalent. Data for the study was gathered from the UK Biobank, a biomedical database that contains de-identified biological samples and information on genetics, lifestyle, health and biological samples from 500000 participants.
The study cohort included 10005 patients who contracted COVID-19 between February 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. The study also included 217730 patients from the UK Biobank who did not have COVID-19. The researchers employed proportional hazard models to evaluate COVID-19 for association with long-term risk of MACE and as a coronary artery disease risk equivalent. An additional analysis was conducted to determine whether COVID-19 interacted with genetic determinants to affect MACE risk.
The study found that the risk of MACE was elevated in COVID-19 cases no matter the level of severity, with a greater risk seen in patients hospitalized for the disease. In patients with COVID-19 who had no history of cardiovascular disease, MACE risk was higher than in patients with COVID-19 who had cardiovascular disease. Researchers concluded this meant hospitalization for COVID-19 represented a coronary artery disease risk equivalent.
Additionally, the data showed there was a significant genetic interaction between the ABO locus and COVID-19 hospitalization. Investigators found the risk of thrombotic events to be increased in patients with non-O blood types.
“This study sheds new light on the potential long-term cardiovascular effects of COVID-19, a still-looming public health threat,” David Goff, MD, PhD, director for the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), said in a release.3 “These results, especially if confirmed by longer term follow-up, support efforts to identify effective heart disease prevention strategies for patients who’ve had severe COVID-19. But more studies are needed to demonstrate effectiveness.”
READ MORE: COVID-19 Resource Center
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