COVID patients at higher risk of new cardiovascular, cerebrovascular conditions amid Delta wave

CIDRAP

A large study from Singapore suggests that COVID-19 infection increased the risk of new-onset cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications during the Delta variant era and that vaccination lowered the risk.

For the study, published today in Clinical Infectious Diseases, a team led by National Centre for Infectious Diseases researchers used national testing and healthcare claims databases to evaluate the risk and rates of incident cardiovascular (eg, abnormal heart rhythms), cerebrovascular (eg, stroke), and other thrombotic (blood clot–related) complications among adults. The 106,012 participants tested positive for COVID-19 from September to November 2021, a period of Delta predominance. The researchers also built a test-negative control group of 1,684,085 COVID-naïve people from April 2020 to December 2022. Median follow-up was 300 days.