Full vaccination against COVID-19 is associated with a lower risk for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and ischemic stroke after COVID-19 infection, according to a research letter published in JAMA. Investigators compared the incidence rates for AMI and ischemic stroke after COVID-19 infection between patients who were never vaccinated (N=62,727) and those who were fully vaccinated (N=168,310) with two doses of mRNA vaccines or a viral vector vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Hospitalizations for AMI and ischemic stroke (31-120 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 HR, 0.42), including for both AMI (adjusted HR, 0.48) and ischemic stroke (adjusted HR, 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.
