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Posted on Mar 15, 2018, 9 p.m.
Persons who have been diagnosed with influenza are around 6 times more likely to be admitted for acute myocardial infarction or heart attack within a week after battling infection as compared to the risk before they had the flu as published in the journal New England Journal Of Medicine.
A large cohort was looked at for the researchers to come to this conclusion. Older individuals were noted to be more likely to have greater risks after battling a bout of the flu, results being independent of the factor if vaccination against flu or previous history of hospitalization for heart attack. It was also noted that the flu as well as other respiratory infections can also raise the risk of heart attack. This is the first study to show a connection between lab confirmed influenza and myocardial infarction within 7 days.
Health records were examined of individuals who had tested for respiratory viruses, noting the connection the infection had with myocardial infarction despite being vaccinated, this risk was unaltered.
364 cases of hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction in 332 patients were analyzed for this study, of which all were assessed within 1 year before and after laboratory reports confirmed presence of influenza. Researchers noted that 48% were women. 24% had previously been hospitalized for myocardial infarction. Among the 364 cases of hospitalizations 20 were seen during the first 7 days after lab confirmation of the flu. The 7 day gap is referred to as the risk interval. The other 344 cases of hospitalizations that occurred within the 2 year time frame were termed as control interval. Analysis results show the risk of myocardial infarction related hospitalization increased by 6 fold during the risk interval as compared to the control interval, with the risk being highest during the 7 day period before returning to normal levels.
The reasons for this risk could be the increase in inflammatory chemicals found within the body during the flu. Proinflammatory cytokine levels may be increased which may lead to dysfunction of the walls of the arteries or endothelium, which may rupture and dislodge plaques that may be responsible for myocardial infarction. More detailed research is needed to find out for certain. The mechanisms are speculation with the risk being real according to the researchers.
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http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1702090
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