Impact of breakthrough COVID-19 cases during the omicron wave on vascular health and cardiac autonomic function in young adults

Abstract

We show for the first time that breakthrough cases of COVID-19 during the Omicron wave does not impact vascular health and cardiac autonomic function in young adults. These are promising results considering earlier research showing impaired vascular and autonomic function following previous variants of COVID-19. Collectively, these data demonstrate that the recent Omicron variant is not detrimental to cardiovascular health in young, otherwise healthy, vaccinated adults.

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiac autonomic function in healthy young adults: potential role of symptomatology and time since diagnosis

“…However, we were unable to recapitulate these findings in young adults, even when considering their symptomatology. Taken together with the findings from our previous work during the omicron wave ( 5 ), this suggests that cardiac autonomic function may be less susceptible to change following COVID-19 in young healthy adults. Middle-aged adults with persistent symptoms (e.g., fatigue) were observed to be more likely to experience orthostatic intolerance ( 3 , 19 ), which would support the notion that symptomology may matter when it comes to autonomic dysfunction.…”

“…Participants also completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) ( 10 ) to assess their physical activity levels during the week before testing. Resting HRV and cardiac BRS data were previously reported for eight participants in the control group ( 5 ).…”

“…Much of this information is from patient cohorts with COVID-19 or those experiencing long COVID, with fewer studies in young college-aged adults who had COVID-19. We previously found no effect of breakthrough cases of COVID-19 during the omicron wave on indices of cardiac autonomic function ( 5 ); however, studies investigating autonomic function in young adults following earlier variants of COVID-19 (i.e., α and δ variants) are limited, and the results are equivocal.…”

“…Spontaneous cardiac BRS was determined using the Sequence Method (Nevrokard, Izola, Slovenia) in which sequences of three or more consecutive beats where SBP and RRI change in the same direction were identified. Sequences were detected using a zero-beat delay, R 2 for inclusion set at 0.85, and using 1-mmHg and 5-ms thresholds for SBP and RRI, respectively, as previously described ( 5 , 13 ). Briefly, cardiac BRS was identified for all sequences combined and separately for up sequences (RRI and SBP increasing) and down sequences (RRI and SBP decreasing).…”

Current topic of vascular function in hypertension

“…The results of a recent study showed that vascular function was not impaired in participants who had been vaccinated against COVID-19 but were infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 [ 34 ]. Skow et al measured FMD and cfPWV in 23 vaccinated adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 (Omicron) who did not require hospitalization and 13 vaccinated healthy controls without a history of COVID-19 [ 34 ]. The average period from the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection to FMD measurements was 30 ± 9 days.…”