Post-Covid and Long Covid Cardiovascular Risks

“Covid-19 has a profound and lasting impact on cardiovascular health, with complications emerging during acute illness, recovery, and even after reinfections or vaccination.”

Dr. Vassilios Vassiliou, lead author of “Cardiovascular disease prevention and management in Covid-19,” a clinical consensus statement published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology

Covid-19 infection was associated with a long-term increased risk of new-onset cardiovascular outcomes in a large cohort study of more than 30 million people in South Korea and Japan.

It is estimated that more than 20% of Long Covid patients experience cardiac symptoms.

This suggests that potentially 2–5% of all individuals infected with Covid-19 may develop Cardiac Long Covid.

The risk of cardiovascular outcomes was 1.26 to 2.92 times higher in children and adolescents after a Covid-19 infection, according to a large cohort study.

Cardiovascular outcomes included high blood pressure, arrhythmias, myocarditis, heart failure, heart disease, cardiogenic shock, thromboembolism (blood clots), chest pain, and palpitations. The study assessed cardiac signs, symptoms and conditions 28-179 days after Covid-19 infection using electronic health records.

Covid may cause lasting heart impairments in children.

In a small study, researchers observed subclinical cardiac dysfunction and Long Covid symptoms in children ages 4-17 who had had a Covid infection in the past 3-12 months.

Covid-19 infection is associated with early vascular aging, especially in women.

A CARTESIAN study used an established biomarker of large artery stiffness to assess vascular aging. It found elevated arterial stiffness in women who’d had a Covid-19 infection, and persistent symptoms were associated with higher levels — suggesting those women with Long Covid are at greater risk. Vaccination was associated with lower levels of arterial stiffness in women, indicating protective benefits.