Rising number of strokes, heart infections may be tied to opioid epidemic, study says
The opioid epidemic has taken the lives of thousands of people and rattled the U.S. health care system since the 1990s — and continues to do so more than two decades later.
Now, new preliminary research shows the ongoing crisis may be to blame for surges in the number of strokes caused by a deadly bacterial infection of the heart called infective endocarditis.
Needles that may be used to inject drugs in veins could harbor bacteria that enter the user’s bloodstream, potentially latching onto a valve or blood vessel of the heart. The dangerous infection is a risk factor for stroke, even more so for people who take opioids intravenously.
In the span of four years, the occurrence of endocarditis from IV drug use jumped by 630% among patients in Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center between January 2014 and July 2018. And patients who developed the infection from IV drug use (26%) were more likely to have a stroke than those who got the infection from other causes (14%).
The early findings will be presented next week at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2021.
“Patients who are known IV drug users who have endocarditis should be more carefully screened for symptoms of cardiovascular disease,” study corresponding author Dr. Shahid Nimjee, an associate professor of neurosurgery and surgical director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at the Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, said in a statement. “The wider societal impact of the opioid epidemic is not well understood.”
What’s more, medical costs were more than two times higher for patients with endocarditis from IV drug use than those who got infected from other causes — that’s a $100,000 difference in health care costs during hospital admission per patient, Nimjee said.
“Our research suggests that the impact of the opioid epidemic is far-reaching and contributes to increased costs in the criminal justice, health care systems and the workplace. The increased costs can be particularly substantial for stroke care,” she added.
The study included 351 patients who were treated for endocarditis at the Ohio State University’s medical center. Nearly half of them had a history of IV drug use, the statement said.
The heart infection is generally uncommon, yet it sends up to 47,000 people to the hospital each year in the U.S. People with certain heart conditions have a higher risk of developing it.
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Rising number of strokes, heart infections may be tied to opioid epidemic, study says."
