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Both COVID-19 and Vaccines Can Lead to Higher Risk of Heart Condition, Study Says
Both COVID-19 and Vaccines Can Lead to Higher Risk of Heart Condition, Study Says
A new study suggests that both COVID-19 infection and vaccination against the virus can increase the risk of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a condition that causes the heart to beat abnormally fast.
In a healthy person, the nervous system automatically tightens blood vessels and causes a moderate increase in heart rate to make sure a sufficient amount of blood reaches the brain. In most patients with POTS, however, this autonomic nervous system doesn’t properly function, forcing the heart to beat extra fast to compensate for the drop in blood supply to the brain. This usually results in dizziness, fainting, chest pain, and shortness of breath, especially when changing from a sitting position to a standing position.
For the study, published this week in Nature Cardiovascular Research, a team of scientists examined the post-vaccination POTS diagnoses of 284,592 adults from 2020 to 2022. A great majority of these patients received Pfizer-BioNTech (62 percent), Moderna (31 percent), and Johnson & Johnson (6.9 percent) vaccines.
“From this analysis, we found that the odds of developing POTS are higher 90 days after vaccine exposure than the 90 days prior to exposure,” Dr. Alan Kwan, the study’s first author and cardiovascular specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said in a press release. “We also found that the relative odds of POTS were higher than would be explained by increases in visits to physicians after vaccination or infection.”
In a healthy person, the nervous system automatically tightens blood vessels and causes a moderate increase in heart rate to make sure a sufficient amount of blood reaches the brain. In most patients with POTS, however, this autonomic nervous system doesn’t properly function, forcing the heart to beat extra fast to compensate for the drop in blood supply to the brain. This usually results in dizziness, fainting, chest pain, and shortness of breath, especially when changing from a sitting position to a standing position.
For the study, published this week in Nature Cardiovascular Research, a team of scientists examined the post-vaccination POTS diagnoses of 284,592 adults from 2020 to 2022. A great majority of these patients received Pfizer-BioNTech (62 percent), Moderna (31 percent), and Johnson & Johnson (6.9 percent) vaccines.
“From this analysis, we found that the odds of developing POTS are higher 90 days after vaccine exposure than the 90 days prior to exposure,” Dr. Alan Kwan, the study’s first author and cardiovascular specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said in a press release. “We also found that the relative odds of POTS were higher than would be explained by increases in visits to physicians after vaccination or infection.”