Hypertension greater than doubles the chance of hospitalization related to Omicron infection, even in people who find themselves fully vaccinated and boosted, in response to a latest study led by investigators within the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai. The findings are published within the journal Hypertension.
The danger is particularly widespread provided that nearly 1 out of each 2 adults within the U.S. have hypertension, in response to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The take-home message is that avoiding infection is amazingly important-;even when the circulating viral variant is presumed to cause mild disease in most individuals.”
Joseph E. Ebinger, MD, clinical cardiologist and director of clinical analytics on the Smidt Heart Institute and first writer of the study
By reviewing electronic medical records, Cedars-Sinai investigators identified 912 individuals who were fully vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine, received a booster shot and were subsequently diagnosed with COVID-19 in the course of the Omicron surge that occurred in Southern California from Dec. 1, 2021 through April 20, 2022. Of those individuals, 145 required hospitalization.
“We were surprised to learn that many individuals who were hospitalized with COVID-19 had hypertension and no other risk aspects,” said Susan Cheng, MD, MPH, director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging within the Department of Cardiology on the Smidt Heart Institute and a senior writer of the study. “That is concerning when you concentrate on that nearly half of American adults have hypertension.”
The team also found that chronic kidney disease, having had a heart attack, or heart failure, greatly increases the chance of hospitalization after infection.
“These findings were expected considering that these are chronic medical conditions which might be well established to be related to worse outcomes,” said Ebinger, an assistant professor within the Department of Cardiology within the Smidt Heart Institute.
Because hypertension is common in individuals with chronic kidney disease, heart attack and heart failure, the investigators conducted an evaluation that excluded patients diagnosed sooner or later with these conditions. The danger for hospitalization was still substantial for people diagnosed with hypertension alone.
The danger of being hospitalized with COVID-19 also increased with age and duration between a study participant’s last vaccination and infection. Hypertension, nevertheless, was related to the best magnitude of risk: 2.6-fold.
These findings extend reports from early within the pandemic that also found associations between hypertension and severe COVID-19. Notably, the researchers found that conditions corresponding to obesity and diabetes, risk aspects identified early within the pandemic, weren’t as strongly related to hospitalization in the course of the Omicron surge. The hypertension risk, nevertheless, continued. More research is required to know the biological processes that will cause more severe COVID-19 illness in individuals with hypertension, and tips on how to reduce this risk.
“Uncovering why hypertension is linked to COVID-19 could help us higher understand how SARS-CoV-2 affects the body and supply clearer targets for prevention and treatment,” said Cheng, the Erika J. Glazer Chair in Women’s Cardiovascular Health and Population Science at Cedars-Sinai.
Meanwhile, individuals with hypertension who develop COVID-19 should concentrate on their heightened risk for hospitalization and discuss with their physician about antiviral therapy, in response to Ebinger.
Source:
Journal reference:
Ebinger, J., et al. (2022) Hypertension and Excess Risk for Severe COVID-19 Illness Despite Booster Vaccination. Hypertension. doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.122.19694.