After analysing the most extensive datasets in the United States, researchers have revealed that vaccination against Covid-19 is associated with fewer heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular issues among people who were infected with SARS-CoV-2.
The research letter, Impact of Vaccination on Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Patients with Covid-19 Infection, was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and will be presented in a poster session at the American College of Cardiology's 72nd Annual Scientific Session and World Heart Federation's World Congress of Cardiology on 5 March.
It is the first study to examine both full and partial vaccination and the link to major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in the United States, confirming similar analyses performed previously using the Korean Covid-19 registry.
Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai used the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) database, the largest national comprehensive database on Covid-19. Since its inception in 2020, the N3C has continuously collected and harmonised data from electronic health records of institutions countrywide.
Included in this study were 1 934 294 patients, 217 843 of whom received mRNA vaccine formulations by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna or viral vector technology by Johnson & Johnson. Cox proportional hazards, a statistical technique, was implemented to assess vaccination association with MACE.
“We sought to clarify the impact of previous vaccination on cardiovascular events among people who develop Covid-19 and found that, particularly among those with comorbidities, like previous MACE, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, liver disease, and obesity, there is an association with a lower risk of complications.
“While we cannot attribute causality, it is supportive evidence that vaccination may have beneficial effects on a variety of post-Covid-19 complications," said senior author Dr Girish Nadkarni, Irene & Dr Arthur Fishberg professor of medicine at Icahn Mount Sinai, director of The Charles Bronfman Institute of Personalised Medicine, and system chief, Division of Data Driven and Digital Medicine (D3M), Department of Medicine.
“To our surprise, even partial vaccination was associated with lower risk of adverse cardiovascular events,” said first study author Joy Jiang, an MD/PhD candidate. “Given the magnitude of SARS-CoV-2 infection worldwide, we hope our findings could help improve vaccination rates, especially in people with coexisting conditions.”
Further work will be necessary to elucidate the mechanisms involved from an immunological perspective and clarify the role of SARS-CoV-2 subtypes and reinfections in their relationship to the risk of MACE.
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