COVID-19 is associated with the risk of cardiovascular disease death: A two-sample Mendelian randomization study.

Objective: This study aimed to estimate the causal effects of Coronavirus disease 2019 susceptibility and hospitalization on cardiovascular disease death using two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis.

Methods: We used statistics from a genome-wide association study. A total of 2,568,698 participants were assessed in this study, including 1,299,010 in Coronavirus disease 2019 susceptibility databases, 908,494 in Coronavirus disease 2019 hospitalization database, and 361,194 in a cardiovascular disease death database. We performed two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis using the inverse variance weighted method. As sensitivity analysis techniques, Mendelian randomization-Egger regression, heterogeneity analyses, and Leave-one-out analysis were employed. Reverse Mendelian randomization analysis was used to detect reverse causality. Statistical significance was defined as < 0.05.

Results: Coronavirus disease 2019 susceptibility may be a causal factor for cardiovascular disease death (β = 2.188 × 10, = 0.002), which involves five common single nucleotide polymorphisms. Similarly, Coronavirus disease 2019 hospitalization may also be a causal factor for cardiovascular disease death (β = 8.626 × 10, = 0.010), which involves nine common single nucleotide polymorphisms. Furthermore, sensitivity and reverse Mendelian randomization analysis suggested that no heterogeneity, horizontal pleiotropy or reverse causality was found between Coronavirus disease 2019 and cardiovascular disease death.

Conclusion: Our bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis showed a causal relationship between Coronavirus disease 2019 susceptibility and hospitalization associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease death.