The risk of heart and blood clot-related complications after COVID-19 infection is significantly reduced in people who have received a COVID-19 vaccine compared to those who have not been vaccinated, observations published online in the journal research has been reported heart.

COVID-19 vaccines have proven to be highly effective in reducing the severity of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19-related hospitalizations, and deaths.

Some COVID-19 vaccines are also associated with an increased risk of rare but serious complications such as blood clots and heart inflammation (myocarditis); It was significantly higher after SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Some studies suggest that vaccination may protect against these complications of COVID-19, but most do not include long-term complications and focus on specific populations.

To address this, researchers used population data from the United Kingdom, Spain, and Estonia, including 10.17 million vaccinated people and 10.39 million unvaccinated people, to compare the effects of COVID-19 vaccination and post-COVID-19 infection. We set out to study its association with the risk of cardiac complications and thromboembolic complications. .

Vaccinated individuals received either an adenovirus-based vaccine (Oxford/AstraZeneca or Janssen) or an mRNA vaccine (BioNTech/Pfizer or Moderna).

Researchers identified cases of cardiac and thromboembolic complications that occurred during the first year after SARS-CoV-2 infection, and identified cases of cardiac and thromboembolic complications that occurred during the first year after infection with SARS-CoV-2, and identified cases of cardiac and thromboembolic complications during four time periods postinfection (0–30 days postinfection, 31–30 days postinfection), and 90 days, 91-180 days, 181-365 days). .

To minimize bias, a variety of potentially influencing factors were considered in the analysis, including age, gender, and pre-existing conditions such as chronic lung disease, diabetes, heart disease, and history of blood clots.

Results show that COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of heart failure, venous thromboembolism (blood clots in the veins of the limbs), and arterial thrombosis/thromboembolism (blood clots in the arteries) for up to one year after SARS-CoV-infection. It was shown that it was related to 2 Infectious disease.

A reduced risk of other complications such as ventricular arrhythmia/arrest (heart attack) and myocarditis/pericarditis was also seen, but only during the acute phase (first 30 days after infection).

Compared to unvaccinated people, those vaccinated against COVID-19 have a 78% higher risk of venous thromboembolism and an increased risk of arterial thromboembolism during the first 30 days after SARS-CoV-2 infection. The risk of thrombosis/thromboembolism was reduced by 47% and the risk of heart failure was reduced by 55%.

The protective efficacy of vaccination weakened over time, remaining at 47%, 28%, and 39%, respectively, from 91 to 180 days after infection, and 50%, 38%, and 48%, respectively, from 181 to 365 days after infection.

Because this is an observational study, cause and effect cannot be proven, and the authors note the inherent concerns of data quality and risk of bias associated with using real-world data, and the We highlight some limitations, such as reporting possibilities. complications.

However, they state that state-of-the-art statistical methods were used to address these limitations, and the results were consistent across all databases, highlighting the robustness and reproducibility of the study results. Masu.

Therefore, they said, “Our analysis shows that vaccination is associated with a significant reduction (42-82%) in the risk of thromboembolic and cardiac events during the acute phase of COVID-19 infection.” concludes.

They added: ”Reduced risk among vaccinated people persisted for up to a year for venous thromboembolism, arterial thrombosis/thromboembolism, and heart failure after COVID-19 infection, but was not clear for other complications Ta. ”

The authors suggest that the protective effect of vaccination is “consistent with the known reduction in severity of post-breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to unvaccinated SARS-CoV-2 infection” and that over time Furthermore, further research is needed to examine the possibility that the effect may be diminished and the effects of booster immunization. vaccination.