Older adults hospitalized for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) face an elevated risk of developing heart failure and a dangerous heart rhythm problem, a Canadian study found.
The risk for heart failure was seen even in individuals without a history of heart problems, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
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The researchers reviewed data on more than 100,000 adults aged 65 and older hospitalized in Ontario between 2011 and 2020 for either RSV, influenza, urinary tract infection, or a fracture.
The proportion of patients with a subsequent cardiovascular event was 18.5% after an RSV-related hospitalization, compared to 17.7%, 12.1% and 8.4% after hospitalizations for influenza, urinary tract infection, or fracture, respectively.
In comparisons of patients who were closely matched according to demographics and risk factors, heart failure (10%–11%) was the most common outcome for RSV patients, occurring in 10% to 11%. Next most common was the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation, occurring in 5% to 6% of RSV patients.
The risk for those outcomes, as well as for heart attack, “was at least two to three times higher in patients with a pre-existing cardiovascular condition compared to those without,” the researchers also said.
“Our findings reinforce the importance of RSV vaccination in older adults and suggest that monitoring for signs of heart disease following an RSV illness may be pragmatic,” study leader Chris Verschoor of Health Sciences North Research Institute in Sudbury, Ontario, said in a statement.