The list of lingering COVID side effects seems to go on forever, and now there’s another complication to consider. Those who’ve been infected with COVID — especially women — may be left with aged and stiffened blood vessels.
A new study published in the European Heart Journal has found that COVID accelerates vascular aging, which causes the structure and function of arteries to deteriorate. The symptoms that persist after infection can last for months or years, potentially raising one’s risk of stroke and heart attacks.
COVID and the Heart
Previous research has shown how infection with COVID, whether a severe or mild case, can present various heart problems. The virus has been known to trigger myocardial injury, when the heart muscle becomes damaged and its cells begin to die.
One of the primary reasons why COVID impairs the heart is because of inflammation. Infection with COVID activates the immune system, which sometimes acts too hastily and produces an excessive amount of cytokines (proteins central to immune response).
This “cytokine storm” can overwhelm the heart in many ways: throwing its rhythm off balance, promoting the growth of plaques, and increasing the risk of blood clots.
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Measuring Vascular Age
To understand what is happening to people’s hearts following COVID infection, the new study honed in on the virus’ effects on blood vessels.
“We know that Covid can directly affect blood vessels. We believe that this may result in what we call early vascular aging, meaning that your blood vessels are older than your chronological age and you are more susceptible to heart disease,” said study author Rosa Maria Bruno, a professor of clinical pharmacology at Paris Cité University, in a statement. “If that is happening, we need to identify who is at risk at an early stage to prevent heart attacks and strokes.
For the study, researchers recruited 2,390 people from 16 different countries between September 2020 and February 2022 and categorized them into four main groups: those who never had COVID, those who recently had COVID but were not hospitalized, those hospitalized for COVID on a general ward, and those hospitalized for COVID in an intensive care unit.
The researchers evaluated each person’s vascular age through carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), which measures how quickly a wave of blood pressure moves between the carotid artery in the neck and femoral arteries in the legs. A high measurement indicates stiff blood vessels and a greater vascular age. For study participants with COVID, the researchers took measurements six months after infection, and then again 12 months after infection.
Why Women’s Blood Vessels Age Faster
After testing all study participants, the researchers found that the three groups that had been infected with COVID had stiffer arteries compared with the group that hadn’t ever been infected. Those with symptoms of long COVID, like shortness of breath and fatigue, experienced vascular aging at a more accelerated rate than others.
The researchers also noted that women involved in the tests were particularly impacted by the blood vessel stiffening. Women with mild COVID had an average PWV increase of 0.55 meters per second, 0.60 in women hospitalized with COVID, and 1.09 for women treated in intensive care.
The researchers say that a PWV increase of around 0.5 meters per second in a 60-year-old woman would be akin to blood vessels aging around five years, with a 3 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease. They suggest that vascular aging from COVID may be more pronounced in women because they usually have a more rapid and robust immune system than men, which can lead to enhanced protection against infection, but also more inflammation.
As for why COVID strikes blood vessels in the first place, the researchers believe that it could be due to the virus hitching a ride on ACE2 receptors in the lining of blood vessels to enter and infect cells.
In the future, the researchers will observe the study participants to see how vascular aging will affect the likelihood of heart attack and stroke.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
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