Vaccination cuts risk for myocardial infarction, stroke after COVID-19

Full vaccination against COVID-19 is associated with a lower risk for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and ischemic stroke 31 to 120 days after COVID-19, according to a research letter published online July 22 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Young-Eun Kim, Ph.D., from the National Health Insurance Service in Wonju, South Korea, and colleagues compared the incidence of AMI and ischemic stroke after COVID-19 (July 2020 to December 2021) between patients who were never vaccinated (62,727 individuals) and those who were fully vaccinated (168,310 individuals) with two doses of mRNA vaccines or a viral vector vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

The researchers found hospitalizations for AMI and ischemic stroke (31 to 120 days after COVID-19 diagnosis) had an incidence of 6.18 versus 5.49 per 1 million person-days for unvaccinated versus vaccinated individuals. In the fully vaccinated group, the overall adjusted risk was significantly lower (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.42), including for both AMI (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.48) and ischemic stroke (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.40). While a lower risk for outcome events in fully vaccinated patients was observed in all subgroups, it was not statistically significant for those with severe or critical infection.

"The findings support vaccination, especially for those with risk factors for cardiovascular diseases," the authors write.

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