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Take a Stand Against Influenza: Focus on Cardiovascular Disease Patients

Influenza Can Trigger Heart Attacks1

Recent evidence has shown that influenza can increase patients' risk of heart attack by up to 10 times.*1

How can influenza lead to an increase in cardiovascular incidents?

3 Main Mechanisms by Which Influenza May Increase Cardiovascular Incidents2-4

  • Systemic immune stimulation and inflammation can trigger disruption of atherosclerotic plaques, leading to myocardial infarction or stroke.2-4
  • Increased metabolic demands of peripheral tissues and organs may lead to insufficient cardiac oxygen supply and myocardial demand ischemia.2-4
  • Direct heart tissue damage may lead to heart failure.2-4

Influenza is Now Recognized to Trigger Cardiovascular Complications1

In a recent study, among adults over 40 years and without a history of heart attack or stroke*, an influenza infection increased1:

When Vaccinating Against Influenza

you can reduce the risk of cardiovascular complications in your patients.5,6

Vaccinate your patients against influenza and reduce the risk of its complications

Footnotes

* In a self-controlled case series study conducted on a database of adults aged 40 years and older with ~90% of the study population aged 50 years and older.1

†In the 3 days following a laboratory confirmed influenza infection vs unexposed or baseline time periods.1

‡Meta-analysis of 6 randomized clinical trials with 6735 patients.5

Abbreviations

Cl: Confidence Interval. HR: Hazard R

References

  1. Warren-Gash, C. et al. Laboratory-confirmed respiratory infections as triggers for acute myocardial infarction and stroke: a self-controlled case series analysis of national linked datasets from Scotland. Eur. Respir. J. 51(3). pii: 1701794 (2018).
  2. Udell, J. A. el al. Does influenza vaccination influence cardiovascular complications? Expert Rev Cardiovasc Ther.13(6):593-6 (2015)
  3. Musher, D. M. et al. Acute Infection and Myocardial Infarction. N Engl J Med. 380(2):171-176 (2019).
  4. Vardeny, 0. et al. Influenza vaccination: a one-shot deal to reduce cardiovascular events. Eur Heart J 38(5):334-337 (2017).
  5. Udell, J. A. el al. Association between influenza vaccination and cardiovascular outcomes in high-risk patients: a meta-analysis. JAMA. 310(16):1711-20 (2013).
  6. Modin, D. et al. Influenza Vaccine in Heart Failure. Circulation.
    29:139(5):575-586 (2019).
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