COVID-19 may be a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes up to three years after infection, a new study says. The study was published in the medical journal Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. For the study, researchers used data from a large database, the UK Biobank.

Researchers identified more than 11,000 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in their medical records in 2020. Nearly 3,000 of them were hospitalized due to their infection. The researchers then compared these groups to more than 222,000 other people in the same database who did not have a history of COVID-19 during the same time period.

The study showed that people who had a COVID infection in 2020 before getting the vaccine had about the same risk of a major cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke or death for three years after their illness, compared to those who did not. It was double those who had not been vaccinated. Test positive.

Additionally, if a person had a severe infection, the risk of a major cardiovascular event was three times higher than people without COVID in their medical records.

For those who required hospitalization due to COVID, diabetes or peripheral artery disease, or PAD, was a possible risk factor for future heart attacks and strokes.

The study also found that the increased cardiovascular risk from infection did not decrease over time. “There is no sign of that risk abating,” said study author Dr. Stanley Hazen, chairman of the department of cardiovascular and metabolic sciences at the Cleveland Clinic. I think this is actually one of the more interesting, surprising findings.

According to a CNN report, researchers involved in the study say they don’t know exactly why COVID has such long-lasting effects on the cardiovascular system.

“COVID can do something to the artery walls and the vascular system that causes sustained damage and that just over time,” said study author Dr. Hooman Allayi, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Keeps appearing.”

Allayi said COVID may destabilize the plaques that are building up in artery walls and make them more prone to rupture and clots.

Researchers also say that certain types of blood have a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases. People with O-type blood appear to be a little safer. People with type O blood who were hospitalized due to COVID did not have a higher risk of heart attack or stroke than people with type A, B or AB blood.

However, this does not mean that they faced no risks. “They still had a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes, but their blood type was just another variable to consider,” Hazen said.

Hazen said the study also had some promising news. People who were hospitalized due to COVID but who were also taking low-dose aspirin had no increased chance of subsequent heart attack or stroke. That means the risk can be reduced.

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