COVID-19 increases risks for people with heart problems
Friday May 6th 2022
People with high blood pressure, diabetes or major heart damage who contract COVID-19 and are unvaccinated face a nine times increased risk of serious outcomes, a new study has shown.
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London have combined evidence from 110 COVID-19 studies, involving 49,000 unvaccinated patients, and have found several predictors of more severe COVID-19 and worse outcomes in them compared to vaccinated individuals.
Evidence of myocardial injury on admission to hospital was associated with a nine-fold increase in likelihood of death and patients with these types of heart issues also had higher chances of developing other complications, including acute respiratory distress syndrome and acute kidney injury. They also needed higher rates of intensive care admission and invasive mechanical ventilation.
Writing in *Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine*, the research team also found that unvaccinated individuals with high blood pressure, diabetes or heart artery disease had a two- to three-fold increased risk of death, and up to 2.5-fold increased risk of other COVID-19 related complications.
They discovered patients with diabetes had the highest risk of developing severe lung failure.
Study author Dr Ajay Gupta, senior clinical lecturer at Queen Mary and honorary consultant in clinical pharmacology and cardiovascular medicine, said: "These findings present a strong case for these at-risk groups to be prioritised for vaccinations and other preventative measures. This is especially true in low and middle-income countries, where the impact of cardiovascular disease is particularly high.
"In more developed countries, groups with cardiovascular risk factors in addition to other vulnerable groups could be selected for booster and annual vaccination programmes, similar to the influenza vaccination programme."
Study author Dr Sher May Ng, from Barts Health NHS Trust added: "These findings can help us identify unvaccinated individuals who are at a higher risk of worse outcomes, even without special tests. This is particularly relevant where healthcare resources are limited but the proportion of unvaccinated individuals remains high."
Ng SM, Pan J, Mouyis K et al. Quantifying the Excess Risk of Adverse COVID-19 Outcomes in Unvaccinated Individuals With Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, Ischaemic Heart Disease or Myocardial Injury: A Meta-Analysis. *Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine* 26 April 2022; doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2022.871151
Tags: Diabetes | Flu & Viruses | Heart Health | UK News
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