American Heart Association volunteer expert, Orly Vardeny, PharmD, MS, Minneapolis VA Center for Care Delivery and Outcomes Research and associate professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Offering perspective on AHA Scientific Sessions 2020 Presentation P223 
copyright American Heart Association 2020

"There are a couple of different reasons why people with heart disease are at an increased risk for complications if they do get sick, especially with influenza. One is that anything that destabilizes their condition can increase the risk for worsening of that underlying condition, and infection does just that. It increases our metabolic demand, and when patients have taxed systems because of their heart disease, their bodies cannot keep up with that increased metabolic demand, which increases their risk for having more severe complications or more severe disease when they do get sick, as well as worsening of their heart condition when they do get sick."