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Frequent acute respiratory infections increase the risk of heart attack by 17 times
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Scientists from Australia advise to carefully monitor the state of the cardiovascular system in case of acute respiratory infections, and this especially applies to the elderly.
Every year the number of people who die from myocardial infarction is steadily growing. Even in highly civilized countries, where patients with heart disease receive effective and timely treatment, every eighth patient dies.
According to the latest research by Australian scientists, acute respiratory viral infections and influenza increase the risk of developing a heart attack by more than 17 times.
The experiment involved almost six hundred patients from clinical centers in Australia who were hospitalized due to a heart attack. Specialists found out whether the patients had previously suffered from acute respiratory viral infections, flu, bronchitis or sinusitis, and how often this happened. All participants in the experiment were required to undergo coronary angiography.
The results of the experiment were not very optimistic: in general, 17% of patients with myocardial infarction had signs of respiratory disease less than 7 days before the acute pathology. At least 20% of patients suffered from acute respiratory viral infections during the month before the infarction.
Having compared the information received with general statistical indicators, the specialists were able to calculate that infectious diseases such as acute respiratory viral infections or flu increase the risk of myocardial infarction by 17 times. And even if we take into account only mild colds, the result is no less depressing – the risk increases by about 13 times.
"Even if we take into account that infectious lesions of the upper respiratory tract rarely leave behind negative consequences, unlike pneumonia or bronchitis, they are diagnosed much more often. If doctors pay attention to the relationship between a cold and acute cardiovascular pathology, this will help prevent many complications and even fatal outcomes," says one of the authors of the project, Lorcan Ruane.
Dr. Thomas Buckley confirms that the experiment explains a lot – for example, the fact that in Australia, more heart attack patients are admitted for treatment in the winter. In winter, local hospitals are filled with patients with viral infections and colds: it turns out that each of these people already has a predisposition to developing acute coronary insufficiency.
"Probably, with ARVI or flu, both the inflammatory reaction on the one hand and the increasing tendency to thrombus formation on the other hand play a negative role. Of additional importance is the effect of microbial toxic decay products on the vessels and tissues of the heart," the scientists hypothesize.
The main conclusion from the experiment is the following: with any cold or acute respiratory viral infection, as well as for several weeks after such illnesses, it is necessary to carefully monitor the work of the heart.