Current evidence of COVID-19 vaccination-related cardiovascular events

ABSTRACT

Currently, the world is recovering from the shock of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic; however, this situation is still fragile. Health authorities recommend administering COVID-19 vaccines as the safest and most reliable tool for eliminating COVID-19. Subsequent to the extensive administration of the COVID-19 vaccines, a series of cardiovascular adverse effects have been reported. This comprehensive review aimed to provide an update on the etiology, pathophysiology, clinical features, and management of the cardiovascular adverse events associated with COVID-19 vaccines, including myocarditis, pericarditis, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrhythmias, hypertension, and stress-induced cardiomyopathy. The benefits of COVID-19 vaccination far outweigh the reported adverse events. It would be clinically important to provide diagnostic scoring systems to differentiate COVID-19-related cardiovascular adverse events from other causes and develop therapeutic approaches for their management. Further evaluation of cardiovascular adverse events of the COVID-19 vaccines is crucial for implementing vaccination programs and developing safer and more reliable vaccines.

Graphical abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Cardiovascular adverse events
• COVID-19 vaccine
• myocarditis
• pericarditis
• VITT
• myocardial infarction
• hypertension

Acknowledgments

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Declaration of funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuSscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.