About 12% of adults hospitalized for laboratory-confirmed influenza suffer an acute cardiovascular event, a new study has found.
Investigators used data from the U.S. Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network to track outcomes in more than 80,000 hospitalized study participants during flu seasons from 2010 through 2018. The most common adverse heart events in these patients were acute heart failure and acute ischemic heart disease, reported Shikha Garg, M.D., from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Factors that put patients at greatest risk for these outcomes were older age (participants had a mean age of 69 years), tobacco use, underlying cardiovascular disease, diabetes and renal disease, Garg and colleagues wrote.
“Clinicians should ensure high rates of influenza vaccination, especially in those with underlying chronic conditions, to protect against acute cardiovascular events associated with influenza,” the researchers concluded.
The study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. An accompanying editorial considers the question of whether flu vaccinations should be routine secondary prevention for cardiovascular disease.
