In a report published on Monday, in the medical journal Hypertension, it was found that more than 1 in 5 patients who were hospitalized due to Covid-19 and over 1 in 10 who were not- had been diagnosed with high blood pressure six months later.
According to the study, there were twice as many cases of hypertension among those who were hospitalized because of the virus as there were in those who weren’t. In comparison to the 11% of patients who were not hospitalized, about 21% of those who were, were hypertensive.
Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is twice as likely to develop in people diagnosed with Covid-19 than in those having influenza.
The researchers examined the medical files of 45,000 Covid-19 patients and 14,000 influenza patients in New York City from 2020 to 2022 in order to empirically support this claim. None of the patients had a history of hypertension prior to the diagnosis, however, this was not the case six months later.
According to the CDC, around 700,000 US citizens passed away in 2021 as a result of hypertension. The condition raises the chance of heart attack, which results in many deaths in the US, claims the US Centers for condition Control and Prevention.
Dr. Tim Duong, professor of radiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine finds the situation “alarming given the sheer number of people affected by COVID-19, suggesting that many more patients will likely develop high blood pressure in the future, which may present a major public health burden,” he said in a news release.
A few demographic groups, including those over 40, Black, and those with a history of chronic renal or cardiac illness as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), have frequently come up in the diagnosis of developing hypertension post-Covid-19.
How the Covid-19 virus causes high blood pressure is still a mystery. According to the study, the virus might affect cardiac cells and interfere with blood pressure management. It’s also conceivable that an acute renal injury, a frequent side effect of hospitalization for Covid-19, may be a factor in the rise in blood pressure.
“These findings should heighten the 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,” said Tim.
