Post-Covid chest pain can last up to 1 year – 05/03/2023 – Health

People who have had Covid are at high risk of experiencing chest pain from six months to a year after the acute illness, points out a new study carried out in the USA and released this Sunday (5).

This risk was higher when compared to patients who had a negative result for the disease in the same period.

The data included hospital visits to nearly 150,000 people at the Intermountain Health Center in Salt Lake City, United States.

Other cardiovascular symptoms reported after infection did not differ between those with prior infection or negative for Covid.

To assess whether there is an association between the condition of Covid and the appearance of symptoms such as chest pain after infection, the researchers evaluated three different groups of patients: the first included people aged 18 years or older who had a positive diagnosis for Covid in March 2020 to December 31, 2021; the second was made up of people in the same age group and period with a negative diagnosis for the coronavirus; Finally, the third group was for historical control and consisted of people who sought medical care for cardiovascular symptoms from January 1, 2018 to August 31, 2019.

The three groups had an equal number of patients (148,158) and were adjusted for sex, age, and previous health conditions of the patients.

According to the study, the multivariate risk ratio (hazard ratio in English, which is the comparison of the risk of two distinct variables, in the case of negative or positive diagnosis for Covid or history of cardiovascular symptoms) in patients who had Covid for pain in the breast was 23%, six months after infection, and 19% up to one year, compared with those who had no previous infection.

This risk was three times higher when compared to the control group: 59% from six months to one year after infection.

The authors of the study say that post-Covid symptoms can persist for a long time after the end of the acute infection and that possible cardiovascular sequelae need to be monitored.

“Although we did not find many events such as heart attacks or strokes in patients who had a mild to moderate case of Covid, chest pain was a recurrent symptom reported by them and persisted for up to a year after infection, which could mean cardiovascular problems. future,” said Intermountain Heart Institute cardiologist epidemiologist and study lead author Heidi May.

For her, it is important that patients who have had post-Covid sequelae need constant investigation. “We don’t know whether this increased frequency of chest pain will subsequently manifest itself in a cardiovascular outcome or event such as myocardial infarction,” she said.

Several studies have already shown that the sequels left by even mild infections of the coronavirus can persist for up to a year. Many of the patients achieve resolution of symptoms, but doctors are still looking to investigate all the so-called effects of the long Covid.

In 2022, researchers listed the most common symptoms of long Covid and what their possible implications are. Among the most frequent are those associated with neurological problems (loss of smell, loss of taste, forgetfulness, confusion, difficulty concentrating, sleep problems, hair loss) and problems related to the pulmonary system (shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, cough long).

There are also reports of cardiological effects of long-term Covid, especially in children who presented the so-called SIM-P (pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome). One study pointed out that the sequels of Covid can come in adults and even babies, while another showed that there is no differentiation if the initial picture of the disease was mild or more severe for the emergence of symptoms.

The researcher reinforces that vaccines against Covid help protect the long-term effects of Covid.

“It may be that the effects of Sars-CoV-2 infection on the cardiovascular system are difficult to measure in terms of diagnosis or other events in the short term without follow-up, but we know from studies that vaccination helps to prevent Long Covid”, concludes the researcher.

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