University of Washington: Study shows COVID-19 patients are 55% more likely to experience serious cardiovascular events within one year after recovery

A massive new UK study tracking half a million subjects for up to a year after contracting COVID-19 has found both good and bad news. The study found that COVID-19 patients had a significantly increased risk of developing cardiovascular problems and new diabetes diagnoses many weeks after infection, however, the risk did return to baseline after a few months.

In addition to the acute challenges of COVID-19 and the clear ongoing conditions of long-term COVID, researchers are increasingly seeing that recovered patients have higher rates of stroke, diabetes, and heart disease in the months following infection. But the long-term outcomes of COVID-19 remain unclear.

One of the largest longitudinal studies on this topic was published earlier this year. The University of Washington tracked about 150,000 COVID cases for up to 12 months. These subjects were 55% more likely to experience a serious cardiovascular event within a year of recovery.

The new study, led by a team at King's College London, looked at the health records of 428,650 COVID-19 patients in the U.K. Each patient was demographically matched to a control group of patients and tracked for two specific health outcomes over the 12 months after COVID infection: newly diagnosed cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

To more accurately characterize the temporal risk of COVID in the months after infection, the follow-up period was divided into three categories: acute COVID (first four weeks after infection), post-acute COVID (5 to 12 weeks after infection), and long-term COVID (13 to 52 weeks after infection).

In terms of new diabetes diagnoses, the study found that patients' risk surged 81% in the first four weeks after contracting COVID-19. Diabetes risk remained about 27% above average during the first three months after COVID infection, then returned to baseline within about five to six months after initial infection.

The risk of cardiovascular events followed a similar timeline, with a six-fold increase in diagnosed heart disease in the first month after infection. This increased risk slowly declined over the following weeks and returned to baseline levels within three months.

Lead author Emma Rezel-Potts explains: "Using a large national database of electronic health records from primary care allowed us to characterize the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in both the acute and long-term phases following COVID-19 infection. While COVID-19 patients were most susceptible to these outcomes in the first four weeks, the increased risk of diabetes remained for at least 12 weeks."

While cardiovascular complications associated with COVID-19 have been well described, it remains unclear exactly how the disease affects the onset of diabetes. Some have hypothesized that doctors are catching more undiagnosed cases of diabetes due to COVID’s engagement with health systems, but others have suggested that SARS-CoV-2 may be directly or indirectly damaging pancreatic cells, accelerating the onset of diabetes in those who are already predisposed to the disease.

Ultimately it will take time and further research to understand the long-term effects of one or more infections with COVID-19. Ajay Shah, a co-author of the study, said the findings should help doctors and patients watch out for these conditions as they recover from an acute case of COVID.

"The information provided by this large population-based study of the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the development of cardiovascular disease and diabetes will be invaluable to physicians managing the large number of patients who have had COVID-19 to date," Shah said. "It is clear that special vigilance is needed during at least the first three months after COVID-19."

The new research was published in PLOS Medicine.

From cnBeta.COM