There is a growing amount of data on the relationship between herpes zoster virus and vascular events..

A new study has shown that herpes zoster is an independent risk factor for transient ischemic attack (TIA) and myocardial infarction (MI) in people of all ages for 24 years after the first episode of shingles.

The virus also increases the likelihood of stroke, but only in patients younger than 40 years.

“The main conclusion of this study is that people who are at high risk for vascular events should be vaccinated to prevent herpes zoster infection, which in itself is a serious disease, and in such people can also lead to stroke” - said researcher Dr. Judith Breuer, professor of virology at University College London.

Herpes zoster vaccine has not been proven to prevent stroke, but Dr. Breuer says her staff are sure of this.. The results of their work were published on January 2 in the Neurology publication.. The work was supported by the National Institute for Medical Research, the Biomedical Research Center UCL, and Sanofi Pasteur MSD, a European manufacturer of herpes zoster vaccine.

Researchers used The Health Improvement Network (THIN) primary care database, which contains information on more than 3 million patients from all over the UK.

The analysis included 106,601 cases of herpes zoster infection, as well as 213,202 patients in the control group (2: 1).. All patients were grouped by age and sex.. To prevent the results from being distorted, cases were excluded from the analysis in which herpes simplex could be suspected..

After the introduction of factors such as gender, age, smoking, cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation, episodes of thrombosis, carotid stenosis and valvular lesions, a herpes zoster is associated with a 15% increase in risk TIA and 10% increased risk of myocardial infarction. TIA itself was a risk factor for stroke, increasing its probability by 7 times compared with the control group (14.32% vs. 2.07%).

"We found out the connection of herpes zoster with myocardial infarction and transient ischemic attack, which, in fact, is a type of stroke, but we did not reveal a statistically significant connection with stroke," said Dr. Breuer.

However, stroke is associated with herpes zoster infection in the age group from 18 to 40 years. For this group, the risk of myocardial infarction increases by 1.49 times, the risk of transient ischemic attack - by 2.42 times, and the risk of stroke - by 1.74 times (P <0.5).

Note that general practitioners are not required to indicate the exact location of lesions when entering data into the THIN database of patients with herpes zoster. Another potential limitation of the study was the recording of physicians about temporary neurological disorders, which could in some cases mask the TIA.

The study authors offer several explanations for how the virus affects the risk of heart attack and stroke.. It is possible that the circulating virus is able to infect the lining of the arteries, especially if it is already damaged by other factors..

This may initiate a long-term inflammatory process, leading further to vascular events..

medbe. ru.