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Covid-19 is linked to a higher risk of dangerous blood clots that begin in patients’ veins and spread to their hearts, lungs, and other organs, according to a UK study that highlights the pandemic’s role in raising rates of cardiovascular disease. This association holds true for Covid-19 at any severity level.
Researchers at Queen Mary University of London found in a study of nearly 54,000 people followed for an average of about 4 1/2 months that non-hospitalized Covid patients were 2.7 times more likely to develop dangerous clots called venous thromboembolisms and were more than 10 times more likely to die than people who did not have the disease. According to the researchers, the risk was enhanced for the longest period of time during the first 30 days after the onset of the condition.
The study, which was based on data collected from participants in the UK Biobank study during the country’s first two Covid waves, was published Monday in the journal Heart. It adds to evidence of Covid’s proclivity to damage blood vessels and cause potentially fatal clots, particularly early in infection.
In a study published in the journal Clinical Research Training, Zahra Raisi-Estabragh, a clinical research training fellow at Queen Mary University, and coauthors noted that their findings “highlight the increased cardiovascular risk of individuals with past infection, which are likely to be greater in countries with limited access to vaccination and, therefore, greater population exposure to Covid-19.” More study is required to pinpoint how long the elevated cardiovascular risk persists.
It is “another reminder that, although many countries seem to have normalised getting Covid infection, there is nothing about Covid that is normal,” says Ziyad Al-Aly, director of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System, that the “astronomically” increased risk of death among non-hospitalized Covid patients.
We cannot truly make our way out of this pandemic without an exit strategy that stops transmission and keeps up with the ever-changing types of this virus, according to Al-Aly, whose own research have yielded significant early data about Covid’s effects on health. We urgently need a variant-proof approach, as well as vaccines that stop transmission.
