Myocarditis. New data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines

Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in patients who have previously had myocarditis is not associated with relapse or other serious side effects, according to a small study reported on the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) website.

Study results were presented at the ESC Acute CardioVascular Care 2022 online congress.

“These results provide reassuring results that can withencourage patients with a history of myocarditis to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2”Commented study co-author Dr. Iyad Abou Saleh of Hospices Civils de Lyon (France). He also noted that most of the patients in the study had received Pfizer’s mRNA (BNT162b2) vaccine, so these results may not apply to other vaccines.

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Myocarditis is most often caused by a viral infection. Symptoms may be: fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath, shortness of breath, cardiac arrhythmia, edema (mainly ankles and lower legs). It can lead to acute heart failure, a condition where the heart is unable to pump enough blood to the organs of the body.

There have been reports in the scientific literature of rare (2,1 per 100 inhabitants) of myocarditis after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. However, there were no data on the risk of developing this disease after vaccination in patients who had had it in the past.

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The team led by Dr. Abou Saleha included 142 patients hospitalized at Hospices Civils de Lyon over five years (January 2016 to June 2021) due to acute myocarditis. They were contacted by phone and asked if they got vaccinated with which vaccine, how many doses they had taken, and if they had any side effects. Patients also provided information on whether they currently have COVID-19 or whether they had had it in the past.

The average age of the respondents was 31 years, women constituted one fifth of the group. Information on vaccination was obtained for half of the patients, ie 71 – 55 of them were vaccinated and 17 were not vaccinated. The main cause of non-vaccination was fear of myocarditis coming back.

Of those who got vaccinated, 43 took two doses and 12 took one dose. In over 96 percent. it was a Pfizer mRNA vaccine.

It turned out that after receiving the vaccine, no serious side effects, including arrhythmias or recurrent myocarditis, were reported among the subjects.

“We have shown that vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in patients with a history of acute myocarditis is not associated with the risk of recurrence of the disease and with other serious side effects. Our results should be interpreted with caution, however, due to the small number of patients and the use of mainly one type of vaccine, ”concluded Dr. Abou Saleh.

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