Covid-19 Vaccines Highly Effective In Reducing Risk Of Heart Failure, Blood Clots Post SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Study

Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective in reducing the risk of heart failure and blood clots following SARS-CoV-2 infection, a new study has found. Vaccination reduced the risk of medical conditions such as heart failure, myocarditis, venous thromboembolism, and arterial thrombosis in the acute and post-acute phase post SARS-CoV-2 infection. The acute phase refers to the 30-day period after infection, and the post-acute phase spans from day 31 to day 365 following infection. Covid-19 vaccination showed a stronger effect in reducing the risk of these conditions in the acute phase, compared to the post-acute phase, the study, published in the British Medical Journal, said. 

Myocarditis refers to the inflammation of the myocardium, the middle layer of the heart wall. This adversely impacts the heart’s ability to pump blood. 

Venous thromboembolism is a condition that occurs when a blood clot forms in a vein, usually in the lower leg, thigh, or pelvis, while arterial thrombosis is a blood clot that forms in an artery, and can obstruct the flow of blood to major organs such as the brain. Medical conditions such as venous thromboembolism and arterial thrombosis are known as thromboembolic events.

Therefore, if one compares an unvaccinated individual affected by Covid-19 with a vaccinated person who has had a breakthrough infection, the latter will have a reduced risk of cardiovascular and thromboembolic conditions. 

The new study, led by researchers at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, has appeared a few weeks after a paper published in the journal Vaccine stated that Covid-19 vaccines, including those from Moderna, Pfizer, and Oxford, have been linked with a slight increase in heart, brain, and blood disorders. As part of the previous study, researchers investigated 13 heart, blood, and neurological conditions to determine if there is a greater chance of them occurring after one receives a Covid-19 vaccine. 

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How the study on risk reduction of heart failure and blood clots was conducted

The new study has shown that while Covid-19 vaccines can be linked with increased risk for cardiac and thromboembolic events, the risk of complications is substantially higher following SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated individuals. 

The study considered 10.7 million vaccinated and 10.39 million unvaccinated individuals. The data was collected from three European countries: the UK, Spain, and Estonia. 

The vaccines included for this study were the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine (ChAdOx1), Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (BNT162b2), Janssen vaccine (Ad26.COV2.S), and Moderna vaccine (mRNA-1273). All these vaccines were approved within the study period from January 2021 to July 2021. 

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Important findings, and significance of the study

The study found that in the acute phase of Covid-19 infection, vaccination helped reduce the risk for thromboembolic and cardiac events by 45 to 81 per cent.

The authors noted that the risks for post-acute venous thromboembolism, arterial thromboembolism, and heart failure were reduced to a lesser extent (24 to 58 per cent). 

Also, vaccinated people had a reduced risk for myocarditis, pericarditis (inflammation of pericardium, or the thin sac covering the heart), ventricular arrhythmia (abnormal heartbeats that originate in the lower heart chambers or ventricles), and cardiac arrest (sudden loss of heart activity) only in the acute phase. 

The authors concluded that Covid-19 vaccination substantially reduced the risk of cardiac and thromboembolic conditions in the acute phase post Covid-19 infection. This was probably due to a reduction in the severity of Covid-19 disease because of vaccine-induced immunity. 

In vaccinated people, reduced risk lasted for up to one year for post-Covid-19 venous thromboembolism, arterial thromboembolism, and heart failure, but not clearly for other complications. 

The researchers noted that further research needs to be conducted to understand the possible waning of risk reduction over time, and how booster vaccination will impact risk reduction.

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