- Since the start of the COVID pandemic in January 2020, about 768 million people globally have been infected by COVID-19.
- While COVID affects the respiratory system, past studies show that it can also lead to issues in other parts of the body, including the cardiovascular system.
- A new study has found that people who have had COVID have stiffer arteries compared to people who never had this viral infection.
- Scientists believe this arterial stiffening may cause early vascular aging of as much as five years.
Since the start of the COVID pandemic in January 2020, stats indicate that about 768 million people globally have had an infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Of that number, about
While COVID affects the respiratory system, past studies show that it can also lead to issues in other parts of the body, including the gastrointestinal system, nervous system, and
“From the very beginning of the pandemic, scientists realized that SARS-CoV-2 was not simply a respiratory virus but was able to induce acute cardiovascular complications and directly infect vascular cells,” Rosa Maria Bruno, MD, PhD, professor in pharmacology at Université Paris Cité in France told Medical News Today.
“We are still learning what’s happening in the body in the long term after COVID. An increased risk of cardiovascular events such as
She is the lead author of a new study recently published in the European Heart Journal, which found that people who have developed COVID — even a mild case of the disease — have stiffer arteries compared to people who never had COVID. These increases in arterial stiffening were seen more in women than men, and more in people with long COVID.
Scientists believe this arterial stiffening may cause early vascular aging — where the vascular system is older than a person’s biological age — of as much as five years.
For this study, researchers analyzed medical data from about 2,390 people from 16 different countries. Study participants were categorized as having COVID but not hospitalized, hospitalized with COVID on a general ward, hospitalized with COVID in the intensive care unit, and not having had COVID.
Researchers determined the vascular age of each participant by using a device to measure their carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV).
“The concept of vascular age can be very intuitive: you’re as old as your arteries are, meaning that your blood vessels can be older than your chronological age and you are more susceptible to heart disease,” Bruno explained.
“We assessed a person’s vascular age with a device that measures how quickly a wave of blood pressure travels between the carotid artery (in the neck) and
At the study’s conclusion, scientists observed that participants in all three groups, including those with mild COVID, had stiffer arteries than those who had never had COVID.
“The stiffer the arteries, the higher the vascular age of the person,” Bruno said. “The arteries of people infected with COVID were stiffer than expected based on their age and on the presence of other factors known to make arteries older, such as blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, [and] obesity. Meaning that COVID is the most likely cause of this accelerated vascular aging.”
These results, researchers say, were more common in women than men, and in participants with long COVID.
“We knew already that women are more likely to experience long COVID than men, though they are less likely to die from acute COVID,” Bruno explained. “One of the reasons for the difference between women and men could be differences in the function of the immune system.”
“Women mount a more rapid and robust immune response, which can protect them from acute consequences of the infection,” she continued. “However, this same response can also increase damage to blood vessels after the initial infection, and be the cause of persistent symptoms characterizing long COVID.”
Researchers also reported the average PWV increase in female participants who had experienced mild COVID was 0.55 meters per second, which is about equivalent to an aging of the blood vessels by five years.
“Women having had long COVID had arteries that looked older than expected of at least five years — their risk of having myocardial infarction and strokes in the future is increased,” Bruno said. “COVID-19 has aged our arteries, especially for female adults. The good news is that this damage is easily detectable and modifiable.”
MNT had the opportunity to speak with Adedapo Iluyomade, MD, a cardiologist with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, about this study.
Iluyomade commented that this is one of the largest, well-designed studies to look at arterial stiffness after COVID, and the signal is clear: People who have had COVID had higher pulse‑wave velocity, a measure of vascular aging.
“COVID is not just a respiratory illness; it can directly affect the vascular system,” he explained. “We’ve known from experience and prior studies that survivors are at higher risk for cardiovascular problems months after infection. By studying vascular changes, we can better identify people who may need closer monitoring of blood pressure, cholesterol, and lifestyle habits, as well as those for whom vaccination may help protect.”
MNT also spoke with Christopher Yi, MD, a board-certified vascular surgeon at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, who agreed that this study provides some of the strongest evidence to date that COVID-19 leaves a measurable cardiovascular impact, especially in women.
“The fact that accelerated vascular aging was observed even in non-hospitalized women is particularly striking, since it shows that long-term cardiovascular consequences are not limited to severe cases,” Yi explained. “The multinational and multicenter design further strengthens the reliability and generalizability of the findings.”
“Vascular aging raises the risk of heart attack, stroke, and dementia, conditions that may emerge years later but could be prevented with early detection and treatment. The sex-specific findings in this study underscore the need for tailored cardiovascular follow-up, and because vascular aging can be measured and managed, there are clear opportunities for intervention.”
– Christopher Yi, MD
