A new research published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, has highlighted the association between COVID-19 with acute risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACE), including myocardial infarction, stroke, and overall mortality. 

This research is based on the data collected the at the UK Biobank from February to December 2020. The study group comprised of 217730 people and the control group had 38860 people. Both these groups had non-vaccinated patients. The interaction between COVID-19 and long-term (>1000 days) risk of MACE as well as a coronary artery disease risk equivalent was studied. This study was supported by the National Institute of Health (NIH).

The study concluded that the history of hospital-admission for COVID-19 indicates a cardiac disease risk. The risk of post–acute myocardial infarction and stroke risk was found to be more in non-O blood types. This was explained with more risk of thrombotic events in patients with non-O blood groups. The higher risk of cardiac events and death was found to be for the duration of upto three years.

Hooman Allayee, Ph.D., a professor of population and public health sciences at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, commented “Given that more than 1 billion people worldwide have already experienced COVID-19 infection, the implications for global heart health are significant. The question now is whether or not severe COVID-19 should be considered another risk factor for cardiovascular disease, much like type 2 diabetes or peripheral artery disease, where treatment focused on cardiovascular disease prevention may be valuable.”

The subjects in this research were the people who were infected during the initial pre-vaccination spread of the virus. It remains to be seen whether the risk of cardiovascular morbidity is  similar in those who were infected later.

Although this study is an important breakthrough in proving gene-pathogen exposure interaction for thrombotic events, the researchers emphasise on the need of further research into the relationship between blood-type with COVID-19 and the role of vaccine in the light of these results.

Reference: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/ATVBAHA.124.321001