Myocarditis and pericarditis: Heart problems after vaccination particularly affect men

Tuesday 10 August 2021

Myocarditis and pericarditis
Heart problems after vaccination affect men in particular

The side effects that can be associated with the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine are being closely monitored. There is already agreement that two heart diseases are part of it. Researchers take a closer look at who is affected and how often.

Researchers in the United States examined how often myocarditis (myocarditis) or pericarditis (pericarditis) occurs after Covid-19 vaccinations. They looked for such cases in people who had been vaccinated against Covid-19 and used data in the health insurance company’s electronic medical files. These came from a total of forty hospitals in different states in the United States.

In their analysis, the researchers found that heart problems attributable to Covid-19 vaccines were more common in men. Overall, of the 2,000,287 people who received at least one Covid-19 mRNA vaccine, the researchers identified 20 cases of myocarditis and 37 cases of pericarditis over a four-month period.

The research team led by George Diaz of Providence Regional Medical Center writes in the publication Results in JAMAMyocarditis was more common in younger people a few days after the second dose. On the other hand, pericarditis was more likely to be observed in the elderly several days after the second dose.

Three quarters of cases of myocarditis in men

Of the 20 patients with myocarditis, 15 were male, and the mean age of this group of patients was about 36 years. According to the information, eleven vaccines were received from Moderna and nine from the Biontech company. In four people, complications began a few days after the first dose, at 16 after the second. On average, complications occurred 3.5 days after vaccination. Two patients even received a second dose of the vaccine after the onset of myocarditis. Both survived another complication. 19 people were taken to hospital for treatment. They all recovered from these side effects of the vaccine within a few days and can be discharged. There were no deaths.

Of the 37 people with pericarditis temporarily associated with the Covid-19 vaccine, 23 received the vaccine from Biontech and 12 from Moderna. Complications occurred in 15 subjects after the first dose and in 22 subjects after the second dose, on average 20 days after immunization. 27 of the injured were men. The researchers found a median age of 57 years. Thirteen patients were hospitalized for a short period due to complications, and none of them were admitted to the intensive care unit. Seven patients with pericarditis even received a second vaccine. There were no deaths in this group of patients either.

In summary, the researchers found that myocarditis and pericarditis are two very rare and usually harmless complications of vaccination. However, the researchers point out that their findings are based on the numbers with which patients presented themselves to the hospital. In fact, the number of issues could also be greater.