“Influenza Diagnosis Increases Risk of Heart Attack by Six Times: New Study”

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — A new study finds people affected influenza six times more susceptible heart attack in the days following a flu diagnosis. The research conclusions are scheduled to be presented on April 18 at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The lead researcher, Dr Annemarijn de Boer with the Julius Center for Life Sciences and Primary Care at University Medical Center Utrecht, analyzed test results from 16 laboratories in the Netherlands, as well as medical and death records. Of the 26,221 cases of influenza between 2008 and 2019, 401 people had at least one heart attack within the year of diagnosis.

In addition, the researchers found people were 6.16 times more likely to have a heart attack in the week following exposure flu compared to the year before or after. However, if you do not include deaths that occurred outside the hospital, the increased risk is 2.42 times instead of 6.16 times.

“This may be because most of the flu testing in the Netherlands is done in hospitals, which means patients are more likely to experience severe illness,” said de Boer, as reported by the BBC. Fox NewsAhad (23/4/2023).

Similar findings come from a 2018 Canadian study led by Dr Jeffrey C Kwong of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in Toronto, Ontario. Researchers found participants were 6.05 times more likely to have a heart attack in the week after diagnosis.

Inflammation increases the risk

Certified cardiologist Dr. Mary Greene of Manhattan Cardiology in New York City who was not involved in the study reviewed her findings. Greene said while the methodology of this particular Dutch study didn’t yield a lot of robust data, it certainly echoed previous studies that had reached similar conclusions.

“I agree that a flu diagnosis can increase the likelihood of a heart attack in certain groups of patients, especially those with underlying heart disease,” Greene said.

The increase in heart attacks among patients diagnosed with influenza stems in large part from the inflammatory process and the environment that is created in the body when a person is fighting the flu or other viral illness.

“Such inflammation in the body can make cholesterol plaques more prone to rupture and blood more likely to clot, which is the underlying mechanism of myocardial infarction (heart attack) and ischemic stroke,” he said.