Patients hospitalized with RSV have greater risk for subsequent heart failure events compared with patients with influenza, UTI, fracture
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, July 24, 2025 (HealthDay News) — In older adults, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular outcome, especially heart failure events, according to a study published online July 21 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Chris P. Verschoor, Ph.D., from the Health Sciences North Research Institute in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study of adults aged 65 years and older hospitalized with a diagnosis of RSV, influenza, urinary tract infection (UTI), or fracture (2,558; 16,688; 73,587; and 11,262 patients, respectively) between 2011 and 2020 in Ontario to examine the associations with cardiovascular outcomes.
The researchers found that 18.5 percent of patients who had an RSV-related hospitalization subsequently had cardiovascular events compared with 17.7, 12.1, and 8.4 percent of patients initially hospitalized with influenza, UTI, or fracture, respectively. Relative to all other patient groups, RSV hospitalization was associated with a greater rate of subsequent heart failure events in matched analyses (hazard ratio range, 1.48 to 3.74), both in patients with and without preexisting cardiovascular conditions. RSV patients also had a higher rate of atrial fibrillation events, although this was dependent on preexisting cardiovascular conditions and the comparator group considered. Patients with RSV were more likely to be transferred to intensive care (odds ratio range, 1.48 to 3.55) and had increased mortality rates (hazard ratio range, 1.49 to 3.98).
“Our findings reinforce the importance of RSV vaccination in older adults and suggest that monitoring for signs of heart disease following an RSV illness may be pragmatic,” Verschoor said in a statement.
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