SARS-CoV-2 has not yet finished revealing all its mysteries… and the consequences of an infection on our bodies several months after it. The long Covid is an enigma: people see the symptoms spread over several months without seeing the end of the tunnel. And even when the infection seems mild at the time, symptoms can appear several months later.
A study recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine analyzes the damage caused by the virus on the heart and blood circulation. The results are alarming. In the year following infection, the risk of developing cardiovascular disease is increased by 55%. Even more worryingly, it even increases in people who have had a mild form of the disease.
Increased risk over at least a year
The study, carried out in the United States and covering the period from March 2020 to January 2021, included a group of patients (n=153,760 infected people) and a group of controls (n=5 million uninfected individuals). Given the period of the study, most of the participants had not yet been vaccinated.
The results show that patients who have been contaminated by the SARS-CoV-2 have an increased risk of cardiac arrest (+63%) or stroke (+52%) not only during the infection, but also in the months following it (at least one year). The risk also concerned thromboses, myocarditis and pericarditis. Myocarditis can also be a very rare but serious side effect of vaccination against the Covid-19. In this study, the increased risk of myocarditis was independent of the vaccination status of the people included. Furthermore, other items showed that the risk of myocarditis following a Covid-19 infection was much higher than that of myocarditis following vaccination.
An increased risk for all contaminated
The study authors were able to draw two disturbing conclusions from their work. First, the risk of cardiovascular disease is also increased in people who never had heart problems before contamination or who were considered to be without risk factors (young people, not diabetics…). Second, the risk also increased in those with a mild form of the disease, although it remained higher in those who had been hospitalized.
According to official figures, more than 400 million people have been infected with the virus worldwide, and this figure is undoubtedly an underestimate. Which means that the virus could be responsible for 15 million additional cardiovascular diseases in the coming months. Essential elements for governments to know in order to adapt public health policies, in particular by matter of screening in infected populations.
Covid-19: long-term cardiac sequelae?
Article by Julien Hernandez, published on 07/29/2020
Observations on a hundred patients recently cured of Covid-19 suggest that the majority of patients would retain, at least in the short term, sequels from their infection.
The SARS-CoV-2 which causes Covid-19 disease has a cardiac tropism. That is to say, it has a certain affinity with heart problems. An observational studyconducted at the Frankfurt hospital out of 100 patients, reveals on examination ofMagnetic resonance imaging (cMRI), persistent damage and inflammation after the healing of Covid-19.
What do you think of this study?
This publication reports observational results obtained on one hundred German patients. We must therefore be careful, confounding factors could also explain cardiac damage. In this study, 78% of recently cured patients still have cardiac involvement detectable on cMRI and 60% inflammation, regardless of disease severity. According to the authors, this should prompt more investigations into the long-term cardiovascular consequences of Covid-19.
Nevertheless, the phenomenon is not new. Infectious myocarditis is a fairly common phenomenon. Moreover, the study is isolated and would need to be replicated more widely in other countries, on more patients.
The case of “post-Covid” patients
These measures could explain the symptoms of some patients who report having persistent symptoms of the disease weeks after their viral recovery. But what do we really know about how these patients feel? Is it really due to Covid-19? Is it caused by other factors? The question is eminently important, because the management that will follow will have to be adapted to what is causing the said symptoms. We will tell more in a future detailed article on the subject.
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