Overview

• The CARTESIAN consortium enrolled 2,390 adults across 16 countries in a prospective study and found that women who had COVID-19 experienced an average 0.5 m/s increase in carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, equating to about five years of vascular aging.
• Pulse wave velocity rises occurred in women regardless of illness severity—mild, hospitalized or ICU-treated—and were linked to persistent long COVID symptoms at six-month follow-up.
• Male participants showed no significant changes in vascular stiffness whether they had recovered from COVID-19 or remained infection-free.
• Although vaccinated participants tended to register lower pulse wave velocity, the observational design prevents drawing firm conclusions about vaccine protection.
• By 12 months after infection, COVID-recovered women generally exhibited stable or improved vascular stiffness while uninfected controls continued to show age-related progression.