COVID-19 surge linked to surge in heart disease deaths – 'unprecedented'

Team members say they have long known that infections such as the flu increase the risk of heart disease and heart attack, but the sharp rise in heart attack deaths is unprecedented
.

New research shows that the increase in heart attacks is most pronounced among younger people, especially those
aged 25-44.

Researchers at the Schmidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai conducted a new data analysis and found that during the pandemic surge, heart attack deaths rose significantly, including a surge in omegalon virus for COVID-19, generally reversing the pre-pandemic trend toward
healthier hearts.

"The effect of this virus on heart risk is very different
.
—Susan Cheng, MD, Master of Public Health

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, heart disease was the leading cause of death worldwide, but the incidence is steadily declining
.
However, new research shows that heart attack mortality has risen
sharply across all age groups during the pandemic.
The study was recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Medical Virology
.

The surge in heart attack deaths is closely linked
to the surge in SARS-CoV-2 infections.
This is true
even in the omegalon phase, where the presumptive COVID-19 pandemic is less severe.
In addition, the data shows that this increase is most pronounced
among people aged 25-44.
People in this age group are not generally considered to be at high risk of
heart attack.

Yee Hui Yeo, M.
D.
, lead author of the study and an internal medicine scientist at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, said: "The sharp rise in heart attacks during the pandemic reversed the previous 10-year steady
increase in heart disease deaths.
" "We are still learning about the many ways COVID-19 affects the body, regardless of age, gender, race or ethnicity
.
"

New data analysis shows a significant increase
in heart attack deaths during pandemic surges, including the COVID-19 omicron virus surge.

Using data from the U.
S.
National Vital Statistics System of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cedars-Sinai researchers identified 1,522,699 people
who died from heart attacks, medically known as acute myocardial infarction, between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2022.

The researchers then compared age-related mortality
rates between pre-pandemic and pandemic periods, as well as between demographic groups and regions.

Key findings from the study include:

• In the year before the pandemic, 143,787 people died of heart disease in the United States; In the first year of the pandemic, this figure increased by 14% to 164,096.
  
  

• The high level of acute myocardial infarction-related mortality has persisted throughout the pandemic, even in the recent period when the Omicron variant, which is considered less virulent
  , has surged.
  

• The researchers found that while deaths from acute myocardial infarction increased in all age groups during the pandemic, this relative increase was most pronounced
  in the youngest group between the ages of 25 and 44.
  

• By the second year of the pandemic, adults aged 25-44 had an "observed" 29.
  9 percent increase in heart attack mortality, adults aged 45-64 increased by 19.
  6 percent, and adults aged 65 and older increased by 13.
  7 percent
  .
  

"There are several possible explanations for the rapid rise in deaths from heart disease among COVID-19 patients, but there are still many unanswered mysteries
," Yeo said.
"Importantly, our findings highlight the mortality disparities that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, even during the Omegalon era
.
"

Possible explanations, Yeo said, include that COVID-19 may trigger or accelerate the manifestation of pre-existing coronary artery disease, even in
young people.

The reasons for the surge in heart-related diseases may also be related to the psychological and social challenges posed by the pandemic, including job losses and other economic pressures
that can lead to acute or chronic stress of heart disease.

Team members say they have long known that infections such as the flu increase the risk of heart disease and heart attack, but the sharp rise in heart attack deaths is unprecedented
.

"There are some very different things about how this virus affects heart risk," said Susan Cheng, MD, M.
D.
, M.
S.
, who is director of the Institute for Healthy Aging Research in the Department of Cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute and senior and co-corresponding author
of the study.
"This difference may be due to a combination of stress and inflammation, caused
by predisposing factors and the way this virus interacts with the cardiovascular system.
"

Yeo, Cheng and the broader Smidt Heart Institute team hope that more awareness and more research will expand the medical community's ability to
manage and mitigate these risks.

References: yeyee Hui, Maggie Wang, Xinyuan He, Fan Lv, Zhang Yue, Jian Zu, Mei Li, Yang Jiao, Joseph E.
Ebinger, Jignesh K.
Patel, Susan Cheng and Fanpu Ji, "Excessive risk of death from acute myocardial infarction during the COVID-19 pandemic", September 29, 2022, Journal of Medical Virology.

DOI: 10.
1002 / jmv.
28187