COVID-19 may accelerate aging of women’s blood vessels: Université Laval study

A COVID-19 infection appears to prematurely age blood vessels in women, but not in men, researchers from Université Laval have found in a large international study.

This increase in vascular stiffness is comparable—in women who were sick enough to be hospitalized in the intensive care unit—to what would occur naturally over a 10-year period.

“We thought everyone would behave the same way. We thought everyone would experience premature vascular aging as a sequelae of COVID,” said Professor Mohsen Agharazii of the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval and the CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Center.

“But we were surprised to see that in men, it had absolutely no impact, while in women, it resulted in accelerated vascular aging.”

Professor Agharazii and his colleague Catherine Fortier collaborated on this study, which examined the vascular stiffness of some 2,100 people across 18 countries.

The sample consisted of three groups of subjects who had had COVID-19: the first had not been hospitalized (most had a mild infection); the second had required hospitalization in a regular care unit for a moderately severe infection; and the last had been admitted to the intensive care unit for a severe infection.

Just under 400 people who had never had COVID-19 served as a control group.

By measuring the speed at which the pulse wave propagates through the aorta (the largest blood vessel in the body), the researchers discovered that this speed was higher in the three groups of women infected with SARS-CoV-2 than in the control group, indicating stiffer arteries.

The differences corresponded to vascular aging of five years for the mild and moderate infection groups, and ten years for the severe infection group.

No difference was observed in men, which is possibly attributable to the fact that women typically exhibit a more robust immune response to infections, resulting in greater inflammation and, potentially, greater damage to blood vessels.

“Blood vessels are lined with a monolayer of cells (which) are a bit like the interface between the blood and the blood vessel,” explained Professor Agharazii. “These cells are attacked by the COVID virus, and when they are sick, it causes dysfunction.”

It is unclear whether the vascular stiffness of infected women is permanent, but even one year after infection, the average stiffness of women who had COVID-19 had not returned to the level of the control group.

Even once the infection has cleared, scarring may remain, affecting vascular stiffness and leading to increased cardiac workload and higher blood pressure, which can affect the heart, brain, and kidneys, the statement explained.

“Aortic stiffness can have consequences for the heart,” said Fortier. “The heart will have to work harder, the pressure will be high, so there can be consequences not only for the heart, but also for other organs.”

The researchers therefore believe that COVID-19 infection should be taken into account—along with high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol levels, and lifestyle habits—when assessing a woman’s cardiovascular risk.

They also emphasize that healthy lifestyle habits such as physical activity, a balanced diet, and taking prescribed medication (particularly for hypertension) can help reduce risks.

–The findings of this study were published by the European Heart Journal.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews