September 30, 2021
HJF teammate Dr. Brian Agan is Deputy Science Director of the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He recently presented work that showed a significant increase in the cases of cardiovascular disease after diagnosis with COVID-19.
This is an excerpt of an article that appeared on Contagion Live titled, “Cardiovascular Disease Diagnoses Remain Elevated 3 Months After COVID-19 Infection.”
In research presented virtually at IDWeek 2021, investigators found that cardiovascular disease (CVD) diagnoses, in particular, remained elevated for 3 months after COVID-19 illness onset.
“Especially for active duty, who must be ready and able to serve critical responsibilities that may be physically demanding, the threat of long-term sequelae from a highly transmissible and prevalent respiratory pathogen is of significant concern,” Dr. Agan, who also serves as HIV research director of the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program at USU, and is an HJF scientist and presenting author, told Contagion®.
“Compared to the pre-COVID period, the odds ratio for CVD encounters (ICD-10) was nearly doubled in each post-COVID period from 31 to 90 days post onset,” Agan said. “Further analyses are ongoing to evaluate the case characteristics, risk factors, and predictors for these outcomes.”
The study, “Long-term clinical outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection include persistent symptoms and cardiovascular disease beyond 3 months post-infection,” was presented virtually at IDWeek 2021, held September 29-October 3, 2021.