New study confirms Heart attacks are up to 17 times more common with flu
During an influenza infection, people without otherwise serious cardiovascular disease have an increased risk of heart attack, the results of a new study confirm.
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- A new study by a Dutch research team shows that an influenza infection increases the risk of a heart attack.
- People who have never been hospitalized for coronary heart disease have a higher risk with a factor of 16.6.
- There is a lower risk with previous heart disease. Possibly due to the intake of medication.
It has long been known that influenza can trigger acute cardiovascular disease. But for the first time, Annemarijn de Boer from the University Medical Center Utrecht and her co-authors have been able to prove the probable link between influenza and the likelihood of a heart attack in humans. The infection was clearly confirmed by PCR tests in 16 medical laboratories in the Netherlands.
The risk assessment was carried out for the period of one year before and one year after the influenza illness (control period) compared to up to seven days after the positive laboratory test (risk period).
"Between 2008 and 2019, we identified 158,777 PCR tests for influenza in the participating study population, of which 26,221 were positive and 23,405 corresponded to individual influenza cases," the experts wrote.
The relative frequency of an acute myocardial infarction during the risk period was 6.16 times higher than in the control period. The relative frequency of acute myocardial infarction in people with no previous hospitalization for coronary heart disease was 16.60 times higher.
The results were recently published in the "New England Journal - Evidence" and the study was financed by the Dutch Research Fund.
Lower risk with previous heart disease
In contrast, people with a previous hospital stay due to coronary artery disease "only" had a 1.43 times higher risk of heart attack. It is possible that taking anticoagulant medication, which is often prescribed by the doctor for such patients, protects them.
Infections with respiratory syncytial virus or other viral respiratory diseases also showed a higher risk of infarction.
Vaccination to reduce the risk
The British epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre wrote in a commentary that the results were consistent with the observation that ten percent of heart attack patients are also diagnosed with influenza, at least during the flu season.
Influenza vaccination should also be seen as a way of reducing the risk of heart attack associated with such an illness.
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