A RECENT study conducted at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea, found that South Korean females positive for high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) were almost four times as likely to die of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD), compared with females without HPV infection.
“Despite remarkable advances in controlling well-known risk factors for heart disease, such as smoking, high cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes, heart disease continues to be a major cause of death,” explained Seungho Ryu, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine. With emerging evidence pointing to HPV as a risk factor for heart disease, Ryu and colleagues conducted a prospective study to investigate this further.
For this study, 163,250 Korean females aged ≥30 years, with no prior history of CVD at the start of the study, were tested for high-risk strains of HPV over the course of approximately 8 years. Researchers combined the women’s HPV results with national data on deaths from CVD, to determine the impact of HPV as a risk factor for CVD deaths.
Results revealed that females with high-risk HPV had a 3.91-times greater risk of blocked arteries, a 3.74-times greater risk of dying from heart disease, and a 5.86-times greater risk of dying from a stroke, compared with females with no high-risk HPV infection. Additionally, this risk was found to be elevated in women with other known CVD risk factors, such as obesity.
In response to these findings, Ryu commented: “It is important for people with high-risk HPV to be aware of the potential for both heart disease and cervical cancer risks. They should engage in regular health screenings, and adopt a healthy lifestyle to mitigate their risk of cardiovascular disease.” Looking to the future, he recommended further research is conducted to see if high-risk HPV infection has the same effect in males, and to investigate the effect of HPV vaccination on long-term cardiovascular risk.
