Studies have begun to suggest a link between chronic fatigue syndrome and abnormalities of the heart, leading to an increased risk of cardiac failure.

correlation is not causation but it is still unsettling.

The vessels blocked by these clots are thinner than the width of a human hair, and they are critical for gas exchange in the lung. With clots choking off the lungs’ blood supply, these tiny vessels seem to make a desperate move, splitting down the middle in an attempt to get blood to these compromised areas -- a phenomenon called intussusceptive angiogenesis.

“What happens is that the blood vessel essentially drops sheet rock from ceiling to the floor. Now you’ve got a tunnel that actually splits into two,” says study author William Li, MD, president and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation.

Before the pandemic, AMI-associated mortality rates decreased across all subgroups. These trends reversed during the pandemic, with significant rises seen for the youngest-aged females and males even through the most recent period of the Omicron surge (10/2021–3/2022). The SAPC in the youngest and middle-age group in AMI-associated mortality increased by 5.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.6%–9.1%) and 3.4% (95% CI: 0.1%–6.8%), respectively. The excess death, defined as the difference between the observed and the predicted mortality rates, was most pronounced for the youngest (25–44 years) aged decedents, ranging from 23% to 34% for the youngest compared to 13%–18% for the oldest age groups. The trend of mortality suggests that age and sex disparities have persisted even through the recent Omicron surge, with excess AMI-associated mortality being most pronounced in younger-aged adults.