Severe Infections Double Risk of Heart Failure

Follow Drugslib on

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Feb 3, 2025.

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Feb. 3, 2025 -- Landing in the hospital with COVID or the flu can put your heart health at dire risk, a new study suggests.

Adults hospitalized for a severe infection are more than twice as likely to develop heart failure years later, according to findings published Jan. 30 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The results underscore the importance of getting recommended vaccines and protecting oneself during the cold and flu season, experts said.

“These are ‘sit-up and take notice’ findings,” Sean Coady, deputy branch chief of cardiovascular sciences at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, said in a news release.

“While there’s already a reasonable body of evidence linking previous infections with heart attack, this study is focused on heart failure, which has been less studied yet affects an estimated six million Americans,” added Coady, who was not involved in the study, which the National Institutes of Health funded.

For the study, researchers followed nearly 14,500 adults 45 to 64 for up to 31 years, from 1987 to 2018. None had heart failure when the study started.

People who wound up hospitalized due to an infection had a 2.35 times higher risk of developing heart failure, on average about seven years after their initial illness, results show.

The association with heart failure was consistent regardless of the type of infection that landed a person in the hospital.

These included respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, bloodstream infections and infections acquired while in the hospital for another condition, the study says.

In particular, severe infections tripled the risk of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), which occurs when the left side of the heart is too stiff to fully relax between heartbeats.

HFpEF is the most common form of heart failure among seniors over 65, and the one with the most limited treatment options, researchers noted.

Nearly half of the study participants experienced an infection-related hospitalization, emphasizing the huge impact that infectious diseases might have on America’s heart health, researchers said.

Even though the study couldn’t prove a cause-and-effect link between severe infections and heart failure, the results indicate that people should still consider common sense ways to keep severe infections at bay, senior researcher Ryan Demmer, a professor of epidemiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said in a news release.

In particular, people at high risk for heart disease who experience a severe infection should talk with their doctor and make sure they’re doing everything they can to protect their heart health, Demmer said.

Future research should focus on solidifying the link between infections and heart failure, he added.

Sources

  • National Institutes of Health, news release, Jan. 30, 2025

    • Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

    Source: HealthDay

    Posted : 2025-02-04 00:00

    Read more

    Disclaimer

    Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided by Drugslib.com is accurate, up-to-date, and complete, but no guarantee is made to that effect. Drug information contained herein may be time sensitive. Drugslib.com information has been compiled for use by healthcare practitioners and consumers in the United States and therefore Drugslib.com does not warrant that uses outside of the United States are appropriate, unless specifically indicated otherwise. Drugslib.com's drug information does not endorse drugs, diagnose patients or recommend therapy. Drugslib.com's drug information is an informational resource designed to assist licensed healthcare practitioners in caring for their patients and/or to serve consumers viewing this service as a supplement to, and not a substitute for, the expertise, skill, knowledge and judgment of healthcare practitioners.

    The absence of a warning for a given drug or drug combination in no way should be construed to indicate that the drug or drug combination is safe, effective or appropriate for any given patient. Drugslib.com does not assume any responsibility for any aspect of healthcare administered with the aid of information Drugslib.com provides. The information contained herein is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, warnings, drug interactions, allergic reactions, or adverse effects. If you have questions about the drugs you are taking, check with your doctor, nurse or pharmacist.

    Popular Keywords