Smoking, diabetes and obesity surpass heart disease as contributing factors to Covid deaths

According to this study, severely ill COVID-19 patients who are persistent smokers and suffer from obesity and diabetes are more likely to die and have a poorer prognosis than COVID-19 patients without such conditions.

This study was conducted by a team and was primarily published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. A team from the University of Michigan, USA, has scrutinized the outcomes of more than 5,100 of her COVID patients admitted to her ICU at 68 medical centers in the United States between March and June 2020. .

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The study observed that patients suffering from cardiovascular disease had nearly a 30% higher mortality rate than severe COVID patients with no pre-existing medical conditions. However, this relationship loses its significance when patients have other risk factors such as advanced age, gender, race, and smoking.

The study showed that age, obesity, and diabetes were much stronger predictors of death from COVID.

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“The fact that the association between cardiovascular disease and mortality was significantly reduced when comorbidities were taken into account suggests that cardiovascular risk factors, rather than pre-existing heart disease, were the main cause of in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients. suggesting that it is the cause,” said the senior author. Salim Hayek.

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Of the 5,100 COVID patients in this study, 1,174 had either pre-existing coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, or atrial fibrillation.

During the study period, about 34.6% of patients died within 1 month, and about 18% of them suffered cardiovascular events such as cardiac arrest and myocarditis.

The researchers found no significant association between such events and death in patients with and without preexisting heart disease.

Researchers found that the presence of myocardial injury was associated with cardiovascular events and death, regardless of whether the patient had pre-existing heart disease.

Cardiomyopathy was common among ICU patients, as half of them had elevated troponin levels. Troponin is a protein released when the myocardium is damaged for any reason.

Patients with the highest troponin levels were almost three times more likely to die than those without myocardial damage, the researchers said in a statement.

“While patients with severe COVID-19 commonly exhibited signs of cardiac damage, our findings support COVID-19 as a pulmonary disease with multiple organ damage associated with systemic inflammation. ,” said Hayek.

“The frequent evidence of heart damage in patients with severe COVID-19 reflects the severity of the disease and the stress it places on all organs, rather than the development of new complications or deterioration of existing hearts. There is a high possibility that it is a disease,” he said.

Although the study reveals a decreasing link between heart disease and death from COVID, study co-lead author Alexi Vasbinder said patients with cardiovascular disease remain at risk of dying from COVID. The findings suggest that the fact that they are exposed should not be minimized.-19. This is because is large.

He added that the team is also working on other studies that could help define groups of COVID-19 patients at highest risk for severe outcomes, such as those suffering from heart failure and coronary artery disease.

Cardiovascular disease is a common condition for patients critically ill with COVID.

(with input from PTI)