Is Cardiovascular Risk Sustained After SARS-CoV-2 Infection?

Infection significantly increased the risk for at least 18 months, while vaccination mitigated the risk.

The cardiovascular risks following SARS-CoV-2 infection are established, but large and long-term studies are lacking, particularly among Asian populations. To provide such data, researchers assessed two large cohorts of patients aged 20 years and older, including almost 9 million people from South Korea and Japan, with outcome data from January 2020 to December 2022. The primary outcome was risk for ICD-10–coded cardiovascular disease. The main findings were:

People with COVID-19 had a significantly increased long-term cardiovascular risk compared with those without COVID-19 (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.62).
The absolute risk in both the infected and noninfected populations was low for cardiovascular disease overall (2.12% vs. 1.31%), including …

Reviewing Author

George Sakoulas, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardParatek Pharmaceuticals; Nestle Corp.; AbbVie; Shionogi

Speaker’s BureauAllergan/AbbVie; Paratek Pharmaceuticals; Nestle Corp.

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Editorial BoardsAntimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy; Open Forum Infectious Diseases