Urgent warning to anyone who’s had Covid over ‘long-term risk of killer complication’
COVID infections could cause long-term damage to your arteries, a study shows.
Virus patients’ arteries became increasingly stiffer in the months after they caught it, even if their initial infection was mild, researchers found.
Arterial stiffness — which normally occurs as you age and can also be accelerated by diseases like type 2 diabetes — was particularly bad as time went on.
The condition can lead to increased blood pressure, boosting the risk of deadly heart attack and stroke.
Dr Maria Perissiou, of the University of Portsmouth, said: “We were surprised to observe such a decline in vascular health, which deteriorated even further with time.
“Usually, you’d expect inflammation to decrease with time after infection, and for all the physiological functions to go back to normal or a healthy level.
“We can only speculate on what causes this phenomenon without further investigation.
“But emerging evidence suggests that it stems from Covid triggering the auto-immune process that leads to vasculature deterioration.”
The virus can continue to cause symptoms months down the line in what is called long Covid.
Some 1.9million Brits reported symptoms at least four weeks after an infection as of March 5, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Previous research has linked Covid to a greater risk of heart failure and heart attack.
The latest study, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, looked at how the virus affects levels of arterial stiffness.
Researchers recruited 32 volunteers who had previously had their arterial stiffness measured before having a mild Covid infection.
Their arteries were tested again after catching the virus to see how they had changed.
Professor Ana Jeroncic, of the University of Split, said: “Given the number of people infected with Covid 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 question remains as to whether this harmful effect is irreversible or permanent, and if not, for how long it lasts.”