Substantially increased risk of myocardial infarction, stroke in week after S. pneumoniae or influenza
FRIDAY, March 30, 2018 (HealthDay News) — The risk for myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke remains higher after laboratory-confirmed Streptococcus pneumoniae or influenza, according to a study published March 21 in the European Respiratory Journal.
Charlotte Warren-Gash, Ph.D., from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and colleagues used national infection surveillance data linked to the Scottish Morbidity Record in order to identify adults with a first MI or stroke between 2004 and 2014 and a record of laboratory-confirmed respiratory infection during this period.
The researchers found that in the week after S. pneumonia and influenza, rates of MI were substantially increased (adjusted incidence ratios [IRs] for days one to three, 5.98 and 9.8, respectively). Similarly high rates of stroke after infection were found, and they remained elevated to 28 days (adjusted IRs for days one to three, 12.3 and 7.82, for S. pneumoniae and influenza, respectively).
“We showed a marked cardiovascular triggering effect of S. pneumoniae and influenza, which highlights the need for adequate pneumococcal and influenza vaccine uptake,” the authors write.
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