Arterial hypertension after past infection with COVID-19
General Medicine, 2023, 25(6), 15-19.
A. Rasheva1, Kr. Hristova2
1 Medical Faculty, Sofia University „Sv. Kliment Ohridski“
2 Medical Center for Cardiovascular Diseases ‒ Sofia
Abstract. One of the consequences after infection with SARS-CоV-2 is a temporary or permanent damage to the heart. In other patients, as a severe post-Covid-19 symptom, high arterial pressure is manifested, while in cases of a known hypertension insufficient control of arterial pressure by the previous antihypertensive therapy was established. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate the impact of the infection with COVID-19 on the arterial pressure of the patients who survived it. Material and methods: 123 persons (female ‒ 75, and male ‒ 48, aged 22 to 79) who are awaiting a consultation with a cardiologist after having been infected with COVID-19, were examined in the Center for Cardiovascular Diseases OOD – Sofia, in the period February–December 2022. An epidemiological survey was used for this purpose. The results show that in 41.3% of the examined persons, the blood pressure increased during illness or a few weeks after the infection. Age has a statistically significant negative correlation (by Spearman) with elevated blood pressure (-0.855**), which suggests that younger people are more likely to experience increased blood pressure as a result of past infection. This is probably due to the fact that the older population already has existing arterial hypertension. The results also show that the previous vaccination does not impact either the increase in blood pressure or the infection with COVID-19. Our study showed that the infection by Covid-19 can be the cause of the increase in blood pressure. Therefore, any patient who has recovered from Covid-19, even if there are no complaints from the cardiovascular system and regardless of age, can be referred for a preventive consultation with a cardiologist.
Key words: arterial hypertension, Covid-19, consultation, cardiologist
Address for correspondence: Senior Assist. Aneta Momcheva Rasheva, PhD, e-mail: anirasheva@abv.bg