Risk of new heart problems jumps after COVID-19: study

Long after recovery from COVID-19, people face significantly higher risks for new heart problems, a large study has found.

Long after recovery from COVID-19, people face significantly higher risks for new heart problems, a large study has found.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs compared rates of new cardiovascular problems in 153,760 individuals infected with the coronavirus before vaccines were available, 5.6 million people who did not catch the virus, and another 5.9 million people whose data was collected before the pandemic.

An average of one year after their recovery from the acute phase of the infection, the COVID-19 survivors had a 63 per cent higher risk for heart attack, a 69 per cent higher risk for problematic irregular heart rhythm, a 52 per cent higher risk of stroke, a 72 per cent higher risk of heart failure, and a nearly three times higher risk of a potentially fatal blood clot in the lungs compared with the other two groups, according to a report published on Monday in Nature Medicine.

The elevated risks among former COVID-19 patients were evident in young and old, Blacks and whites, males and females, people with and without diabetes and with and without kidney disease, as well as smokers and nonsmokers, said Ziyad Al-Aly of the VA St. Louis Health Care System and Washington University in St. Louis.