Study suggests COVID-19 can harm cardiovascular health over time
– 💉 A new study suggests that even mild cases of COVID-19 can have long-term detrimental effects on cardiovascular health.
– 💔 Participants who had been diagnosed with mild COVID-19 showed signs of stiffer and more dysfunctional arteries that could lead to cardiovascular disease development.
– 🧑🔬 The study was the first to compare pre and post COVID-infection levels of arterial stiffness, using baseline measurements from a group of participants involved in a separate study that began pre-pandemic.
– 📉 Age and time from COVID infection is associated with increased ageing of the arteries.
– 🤔 The decline in vascular health observed in participants deteriorated even further with time since COVID-19 infection, suggesting COVID-19 triggering the auto-immune process that leads to vasculature deterioration.
– 🌎 Given the number of people infected with COVID-19 worldwide, the fact that infection can have harmful effects on cardiovascular health in young people who had a mild form of the disease warrants close monitoring.
– 🔬 The paper concludes the results have important implications for understanding the long-term cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19 infection and may guide prevention and management strategies for associated vascular disease, but it recommends further research is needed to strengthen our understanding of causes and contributing factors.
