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COVID May Increase Risk Of High Blood Pressure

Aug. 21, 2023 – Infection with COVID-19 may increase a person's risk of developing high blood pressure, according to a new study.

High blood pressure already impacts about half of U.S. Adults and is a significant risk factor for potentially deadly health problems like heart disease or having a stroke. The researchers expressed concern about the sheer number of people who newly developed the condition, which over time can severely damage a person's arteries, heart, and other parts of the body.

Among people in the study who had COVID but didn't have a history of high blood pressure:

One in five who had been hospitalized with COVID developed high blood pressure within 6 months.

One in 10 who had COVID but were not hospitalized developed high blood pressure within 6 months.

The study appeared Monday in Hypertension, a journal published by the American Heart Association. The researchers analyzed data for more than 45,000 people who had COVID from March 2020 to August 2022. The people did not have a history of high blood pressure, which is also sometimes called hypertension. All of the people were treated at the Montefiore Health System in the Bronx, NY, and had returned to the hospital system for any medical reason within an average of 6 months.

Hypertension is defined as "having top and bottom numbers greater than or equal to 130/80 mm Hg," an American Heart Association news release stated.

In an analysis to evaluate the impact of COVID, the researchers compared the likelihood of new high blood pressure in people who had the flu to the people who had COVID. The hospitalized COVID patients were more than twice as likely to get high blood pressure, compared to hospitalized flu patients. People who had COVID but weren't hospitalized were 1.5 times more likely to get high blood pressure, compared to non-hospitalized flu patients.

People at greatest risk were age 40 or older, men, or had conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), coronary artery disease, or chronic kidney disease.

The authors noted that the people in the study mostly lived in a low socioeconomic area, which can be a risk factor for high blood pressure. Aspects of the pandemic other than the virus itself could have impacted high blood pressure risk, too, like isolation, low activity levels, poor diet, and psychological stress. The researchers said further study is needed to overcome limitations of their research, particularly that it only included people who interacted with the health care system and that they didn't know if some people already had high blood pressure that was just undiagnosed.

"Given the sheer number of people affected by COVID-19 compared to influenza, these statistics are alarming and suggest that many more patients will likely develop high blood pressure in the future, which may present a major public health burden," researcher Tim Q. Duong, PhD, a professor of radiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, said in a statement. "These findings should heighten awareness to screen at-risk patients for hypertension after COVID-19 illness to enable earlier identification and treatment for hypertension-related complications, such as cardiovascular and kidney disease."

Covid-19 Linked With Higher Risk Of High Blood Pressure, Study Finds

CNN —

When it comes to developing high blood pressure, Covid-19 might play an outsized role, a new study says.

The report, published Monday in the medical journal Hypertension, found that more than 1 in 5 patients who were hospitalized with Covid-19 – and over 1 in 10 who were not – had been diagnosed with high blood pressure six months later. Compared with people who had influenza, another upper respiratory virus, those hospitalized with Covid-19 were over twice as likely to develop hypertension.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, the leading causes of death in the United States. Nearly half of the adults in the nation have hypertension, and in 2021, the CDC says, it caused nearly 700,000 deaths in the United States.

The threshold for hypertension can sometimes vary by doctor, but the most recent guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology define it as a reading of 130 over 90.

In the new study, the researchers looked at the medical records of over 45,000 Covid-19 patients and nearly 14,000 influenza patients in the Bronx borough of New York City between 2020 and 2022. Before their viral infection, none of the patients had a history of hypertension. At a six-month follow-up appointment, the researchers then tracked which ones had new diagnoses of the heart condition.

Across the board, people who were hospitalized with Covid-19 were diagnosed with hypertension at about twice the rate of those who were not: About 21% of hospitalized Covid-19 patients were hypertensive, compared with 11% who were not hospitalized.

Of the hospitalized Covid-19 patients, more than 1 in 5 developed hypertension during their time in the hospital, while actively infected with Covid-19, despite having no history of high blood pressure.

However, in comparison with patients who were infected with the flu, Covid-19 patients had worse blood pressure outcomes.

Covid-19 patients who had been hospitalized were 2.23 times as likely to develop high blood pressure as hospitalized influenza patients. Even Covid-19 patients who weren't in the hospital were over 50% more likely than nonhospitalized flu patients to develop hypertension.

The high incidence of hypertension in people with Covid-19 is "alarming given the sheer number of people affected by COVID-19," the report says.

The researchers found hypertension to be more common in a few key demographic groups. People who were over 40 years old, were Black or had pre-existing conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), coronary artery disease or chronic kidney disease were at a higher risk of developing hypertension after a Covid-19 infection.

Patients who were treated with vasopressor medications, a class of drugs that constrict vessels to raise blood pressure, or corticosteroids, a type of anti-inflammatory drug often used to treat arthritis, were also at a higher risk.

But scientists are unsure how the Covid-19 virus might trigger new-onset high blood pressure. The study theorizes that the coronavirus could infect heart cells and disrupt blood pressure regulation or that acute kidney injury – a common complication during Covid-19 hospitalization – might contribute to hypertension.

The report also noted that most of the people in the study came from communities with low socioeconomic status, which might have increased their risk of developing high-blood pressure. Risk factors linked with poverty, including stress and reduced access to healthy food, might have raised rates of hypertension.

As a result, the report said, longer-term follow-up research would be useful to track whether heightened blood pressure can be more closely linked to Covid-19 and, if so, what the long-term heart health effects might be. For now, the data could tip doctors off to the link between Covid-19 and hypertension.

"These findings should heighten awareness to screen at-risk patients for hypertension after COVID-19 illness to enable earlier identification and treatment for hypertension-related complications, such as cardiovascular and kidney disease," Duong said.

COVID Might Help Trigger New-Onset High Blood Pressure, New Research Shows

COVID might increase the risk of developing high blood pressure more than influenza, a new study has found.

The risk may be even greater for people in certain categories, such as people 40 or older, Black people, men, and those with certain preexisting conditions, including coronary artery disease.

It is unknown whether hypertension following a COVID infection might eventually go away, according to experts.

Studio Firma/Stocksy

New research suggests that having COVID-19 may pose a greater risk of developing longer-term high blood pressure than the flu.

The study, published earlier this month in the journal Hypertension, investigated whether people with COVID or influenza had higher rates of hypertension six months post-infection. Researchers found that both hospitalized and non-hospitalized COVID patients were significantly more likely to develop hypertension than flu patients, some of whom had hospital visits and others who didn't.

Previous studies have linked both COVID and influenza with high blood pressure—also known as hypertension. Here, researchers wanted to learn about "the incidence and risk factors associated with new-onset hypertension" in people with these respiratory illnesses, they wrote in the study.

Defined by the American Heart Association as a blood pressure reading of 130/80 mm Hg or higher, hypertension can lead to heart disease, stroke, and other major health issues. The condition contributes to or causes nearly 8 million deaths a year worldwide.

Meanwhile, global COVID cases have topped 769 million, per the World Health Organization.

The study "statistics are alarming given the sheer number of people affected by COVID-19 worldwide," lead study author Tim Duong, PhD, a professor of radiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System in New York City, told Health. "This high incidence of persistent hypertension is not limited to people with severe COVID-19 illness."

Luke Laffin, MD, co-director of the Center for Blood Pressure Disorders at Cleveland Clinic, told Health that the study provides another "piece in the puzzle" regarding COVID infections and cardiovascular disease. Still, he said, researchers need more information to determine the actual risk of post-COVID hypertension.

For the study, researchers analyzed medical records from New York City's Montefiore Health System, which serves a racially and ethnically diverse population. The study involved about 45,000 people with COVID between March 2020 and August 2022 and 14,000 who had the flu between January 2018 and August 2022. No patients had a history of hypertension. The researchers reviewed which patients had high blood pressure at a six-month follow-up appointment. They found that about 20% of people hospitalized with COVID and 11% non-hospitalized patients had high blood pressure six months later. That's compared to 16% of hospitalized flu patients who developed hypertension and 4% of non-hospitalized people with the flu who had hypertension post-infection. In addition, the researchers found that Black people, men, and those over 40 had the highest risk of persistent hypertension post-COVID. It was also more common for people with preexisting health conditions, such as coronary artery disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), to develop high blood pressure. Laffin said the study had a significant limitation: The researchers couldn't factor in the effect of COVID vaccines on blood pressure readings because they weren't available then. "Theoretically, this may impact their risk [by] lessening the downstream effects of COVID," he explained. Researchers also don't know why a COVID infection may influence blood pressure risk, but Laffin theorized that it could be related to factors such as persistent inflammation, a long-term impact on the immune system, or damage to the endothelial cells lining blood vessels. Another unknown is whether any potential COVID-related high blood pressure can disappear over time. "We don't have enough data to say yes or no," Laffin explained. "Most people that develop hypertension can lower their blood pressure with lifestyle interventions alone; however, that may not be enough to reach suggested blood pressure targets." The best way to reduce your chances of COVID-related complications (including possible high blood pressure) is to take precautions to prevent contracting COVID in the first place. Measures such as frequent hand washing and avoiding close contact with infected people can help reduce your risk. Getting vaccinated can also lower your risk of infection and reduce your chances of having long-term side effects if you do test positive for COVID, said Duong. According to Laffin, it's too early to say whether COVID treatments such as Paxlovid, the antiviral prescribed for people at risk of severe illness, could influence whether people develop high blood pressure after an infection. If you do contract COVID, Duong advised starting a dialogue with a healthcare provider about the possibility of developing hypertension, especially if you fall into any high-risk categories identified in the study. "These findings hopefully could heighten awareness to screen at-risk patients for hypertension after COVID-19 illness," said Duong. "Earlier identification of patients at risk would enable treatment for hypertension and hypertension-related complications."

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