During an influenza infection (PCR test), people without otherwise serious cardiovascular diseases have a 16.6 times higher risk of a heart attack. That is the alarming result of a new study.
The results of the Dutch research were recently published in “New England Journal – Evidence”.
It has long been known that influenza can cause acute cardiovascular disease.
Infarctions are up to 17 times more common with influenza
But for the first time, Annemarijn de Boer (University Medical Center Utrecht) and her co-authors have succeeded in demonstrating the likely link between influenza and the likelihood of a heart attack, precisely in people who were clearly confirmed to have the infection using a PCR test in 16 medical laboratories in the Netherlands.
The risk assessment was performed for the period of one year before and one year after the influenza illness (control period) compared with up to seven days after the positive laboratory test (risk period).
Confirmed by PCR tests
“Between 2008 and 2019, we identified 158,777 PCR tests for influenza in the included study population, of which 26,221 were positive and 23,405 corresponded to individual influenza illnesses. (…) The relative frequency of acute myocardial infarction during the risk period (acute influenza infection; note) compared to the control period was a factor of 6.16. The relative frequency of acute myocardial infarction in people without previous hospitalization for coronary heart disease was 16.60 times,” the experts wrote in the scientific journal (DOI: 10.1056/EVIDoa2300361).
However, people who had previously been hospitalized for coronary heart disease were “only” 1.43 times more likely to have a heart attack. It is possible that taking anticoagulant medications, which are often prescribed by doctors to such patients, protects them. Infections with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or other viral respiratory diseases were also associated with a higher risk of heart attack.
Vaccination required for protection
British epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre wrote in a commentary that the results were consistent with the observation that 10 percent of patients with a heart attack are also diagnosed with influenza, at least during the flu season. The flu vaccination should also be seen as a way to reduce the risk of a heart attack that accompanies such an illness. The study was funded by the Netherlands Research Fund.
Source: Krone
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