Abstract
Chronic viral infection induces immunosenescence and systemic low-grade inflammation, leading to worsened long-term outcomes. We sought to explore the short- and long-term effects of chronic viral infection on cardiovascular disease (CVD). Based on UK Biobank data, exposed group was identified as individuals who had chronic virus infection-related hospitalization (IRH). Unexposed group was randomly selected, matched by 5-year age interval, sex, and Charlson comorbidity index at a ratio up to 1:10. Restricted cubic splines were used to model time-varying effects of IRH in nonproportional Cox models. A cut-off value of 5 years was recorded and used in piecewise Cox proportional hazards models as we estimated short- and long-term effects of IRH on CVD. A total of 2826 exposed participants and 28 212 matched unexposed participants were included. Chronic viral IRH was associated with increased risk of CVD (0-5 years: hazard ratio, 1.57 [95% confidence interval: 1.32, 1.87] and 5+ years: 1.31 [1.06, 1.61]). Elevated risk of stroke was only observed within the initial 5-year follow-up (0-5 years: 1.91 [1.30, 2.81]). The short- and long-term associations were observed in herpes or hepatitis virus IRH with risk of CVD (all p < 0.05). Subgroup analysis revealed long-term association between chronic viral IRH and CVD among female (5+ years: 1.68 [1.27, 2.22]) but not among male. The association between chronic viral infection and elevated CVD risk appeared to be stronger among individuals who did not take cholesterol-lowering medication, antithrombotic medication, or certain antihypertensive medications (all p for interaction < 0.05). The risk of CVD event remained persistently higher within and over 5 years following chronic viral IRH, especially in individuals infected with herpes and hepatitis virus.
Citation
@article{RN1071,
author = {Yang, L. and Lu, Z. and Bian, J. and Li, F. and Zou, H.},
title = {Association between chronic viral infection-related hospitalization and risk of cardiovascular disease: A population-based cohort study},
journal = {J Med Virol},
volume = {96},
number = {1},
pages = {e29350},
ISSN = {1096-9071 (Electronic)
0146-6615 (Linking)},
DOI = {10.1002/jmv.29350},
url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38180233},
year = {2024},
type = {Journal Article}
}