Your chance of having a heart attack or stroke
increases significantly if you have been
hospitalized for pneumonia, according to a paper
published in the influential JAMA (Journal of the
American Medical Association).
"The main conclusion from our study is that someone
hospitalized for pneumonia should be considered at
greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease,"
said lead author Dr. Vicente Corrales-Medina, an
infectious diseases physician and researcher at The
Ottawa Hospital, and assistant professor with the
University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine.
"This means two things. First, it provides yet
another reason to do everything we can to prevent
pneumonia from occurring in the community, through
vaccination and basic hand hygiene, for example," he
continued. "This is especially important for the
elderly and those with other risk factors for
cardiovascular disease, such as diabetes, smoking
and high cholesterol."
"Second, once pneumonia has occurred, physicians
should develop a care plan understanding that these
patients are more likely to develop cardiovascular
disease in the weeks, months and years following
their recovery from this infection," added Dr.
Corrales-Medina. "Such measures could include
screening and primary prevention strategies for
cardiovascular disease."
While other studies have made the connection between
pneumonia hospitalization and cardiovascular
disease, this is the first to only look at pneumonia
patients with no previous history of cardiovascular
disease while also taking into account the effect of
other established cardiovascular risk factors. By
doing so, their results strongly indicate that
hospitalization for pneumonia should be considered
its own risk factor for future cardiovascular
disease.
The JAMA paper used records of 3,813 people from two
community health studies, both based in the United
States. One enrolled participants aged 65 and older
and the other enrolled participants aged 45 to 64.
The JAMA study analysed health data of 1,271
pneumonia patients against 2,542 control patients (matched
by age) over a period of 10 years.
Results showed that these pneumonia patients had a
raised level of risk for cardiovascular disease over
the entire 10 years, with the highest risk
experienced in the first year. For example, in the
group aged 65 and older, a pneumonia patient was
four times more likely to develop cardiovascular
disease in the first 30 days following the infection.
In the tenth year, they were a little less than
twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease.
Another way of looking at it: The 10-year risk of
developing cardiovascular disease for a 72-year-old
woman with two cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension
and smoking) increases from 31% to 90% if she is
hospitalized for pneumonia.
Results from the group aged 45 to 64 showed that the
risk was higher in the first two years, but not
significantly raised after that. In this younger
group, a pneumonia patient was 2.4 times more likely
to develop cardiovascular disease in the first 90
days after the infection.
Dr. Corrales-Medina's current research is focused on
trying to determine what biological mechanisms are
responsible for this raised risk of cardiovascular
disease after pneumonia, in order to develop
therapies to prevent the subsequent onset of
cardiovascular disease.
See also
ECDC Surveillance report. Point prevalence survey of
healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial
use in European acute care hospitals 2011-2012.
luglio 2013
For more information
Jama - The Journal of the American Medical
Association
Association Between Hospitalization for Pneumonia
and Subsequent Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
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