Heart inflammation rare after COVID vaccination: Study

According to a study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal, the overall risk of myopericarditis (inflammation of the heart muscles) following COVID-19 vaccination is very low, involving only 18 persons per million vaccine doses.

The study demonstrates that the risk of myopericarditis following COVID-19 immunisation is comparable to or lower than that following other non-COVID-19 vaccines.

The researchers looked at over 400 million vaccination doses in international databases to compare the risk of myopericarditis after vaccination against COVID-19 and other illnesses including influenza and smallpox.

There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of myopericarditis following the COVID-19 vaccination (18 cases per million doses) and other vaccinations (56 instances per million doses), according to the researchers.

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“Our findings imply that the overall risk of myopericarditis for this newly licenced group of COVID-19 vaccinations is no different than for vaccines against other diseases,” stated corresponding author Kollengode Ramanathan of National University Hospital in Singapore.

“The risk of such uncommon incidents should be weighed against the risk of infection-related myopericarditis, and these findings should increase public trust in the safety of COVID-19 vaccines,” Ramanathan added.

In some circumstances, myopericarditis might result in permanent heart damage. Viruses are the most common cause, however, they can also happen after immunisation in rare cases.

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Myopericarditis has been reported after mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination, particularly in adolescents and young adults.

Between January 1947 and December 2021, the researchers looked at more than 20 publications that reported cases of myopericarditis after any form of vaccination.

According to the study, those who received mRNA vaccines (22.6 cases per million doses) had a higher risk of myopericarditis than those who received non-mRNA immunizations (7.9 instances per million doses).

According to the researchers, reported instances were greater in those under the age of 30 (40.9 cases per million doses), men (23 cases per million doses), and after the second dosage of COVID-19 vaccination (31.1 cases per million doses).

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“The occurrence of myopericarditis after non-COVID-19 vaccination could suggest that myopericarditis is a side effect of the inflammatory processes induced by any vaccination and is not unique to the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins in COVID-19 vaccines or infection,” said Jyoti Somani, co-author of the study and from National University Hospital in Singapore.

“This also emphasises how the benefits of vaccination, which include a lower chance of infection, hospitalisation, severe disease, and mortality from COVID-19, should outweigh the dangers of such few side events,” Somani added.

The researchers agree that their study has certain limitations.

They cautioned that their findings only apply to a tiny percentage of children under the age of 12 who have recently become eligible for vaccination and that the findings cannot be applied to all children in this age group.