The Incidence of Myocardial Infarction after Vaccination against COVID-19: a Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Vaccines were developed to stop the pandemic stage of COVID-19. A wide range of adverse effects, including vascular complications, has been reported after vaccination. Up to now, various studies have reported different rates of myocardial infarction (MI) after COVID-19 vaccination. So, this meta-analysis and systematic review study was designed to estimate the pooled incidence of MI after COVID-19. METHODS: Two experienced researchers conducted searches in various databases and sources such as EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed and gray literature, including references from studies published before March 2023. They collected information on participant count, the number of individuals who experienced MI after vaccination, average age, vaccine type, primary author, publication year and country of origin. RESULTS: A total of 385 articles were revealed by a literature search, and for further evaluation, 248 studies remained after removing duplicates. Seven articles remained for meta-analysis. Three studies provided the number of controls and the incidence of MI in both vaccinated and non-vaccinated groups. The incidence of MI after COVID-19 vaccines was ignorable (0, I(2)=99, P<0.001). After COVID-19 vaccines, the odds of MI were 0.99 (95 CI 0.84-1.18) (I(2)=0, p=0.9). CONCLUSION: As shown by the results of the present meta-analysis and systematic review, the incidence of MI after COVID-19 vaccination can be ignorable and the risk was not increased by vaccination.