C-19/long COVID/post-vaccination syndrome & Cardiovascular system (clinical studies)

The most remarkable finding in the cardiac remodeling triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 infection was a marked neovascularization in the form of intussusceptive angiogenesis, which was associated with a significant infiltration of CD11b+/TIE2+ macrophages, which are drivers of intussusceptive angiogenesis.

After discontinuation of anticoagulation therapy, recurrent VTE occurred in 3.5% of patients, with a rate of 3.1 per 100 patient-years, and no fatal pulmonary embolism.

The authors concluded that the findings of sudden cardiac deaths attributable to COVID vaccine-related myocarditis warrant the careful monitoring or warning of sudden cardiac death as a potentially fatal complication of COVID-19 vaccination, especially in individuals younger than 45 years of age who received the mRNA vaccines.

This study showed a high rate (38%) of standing test positivity in patients with long COVID. The ST-positive long COVID patients under 20 years of age had decreased circulating growth hormone levels.

This case report describes a fully vaccinated woman positive for a non-Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 who experienced a spontaneous internal carotid dissection. A dissection was treated successfully with a flow-diverter stent.

After the second BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination, brachial artery flow-mediated dilation assessment showed endothelial dysfunction in relatively healthy participants, which was restored within six months.

The results show severe vascular remodeling of placental arteries, including severe thickening of the vessel walls and the occlusion of the vessel lumen, in women with COVID-19 during pregnancy.

Individuals who were asymptomatic and underwent PET/CT within a period of 180 days following their second vaccination had increased 18Fluorine-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in the myocardium, axilla, liver, and spleen as compared to unvaccinated individuals.

SARS-CoV-2 was detected and replicated in the coronary arteries sampled at autopsy of severe COVID-19 cases. The virus targeted plaque macrophages and demonstrated a stronger tropism for arterial wall lesions than for perivascular fat.

In this retrospective pharmacovigilance study of safety signals associated with myocarditis/pericarditis after the primary and up to three booster doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, the second dose of the vaccines showed the strongest signal in vaccinated individuals under 25 years old.

30% of patients diagnosed with long COVID syndrome had cardiac MRI signs of non-ischemic fibrosis, exceeding the prevalence of this disease in the normal adult population.

The authors performed the immunohistological analysis of clots from three people who died from cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) related to vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) after receiving a single dose of ChAdOX1-nCoV-19, AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines.

PET and MRI visualization of myocardial tissue has shown localized myocardial inflammation and edema in a small proportion of patients with symptomatic myocarditis approximately two months after COVID-19 vaccination. 

The overall risk of all forms of retinal vascular occlusion was 2.19 times higher in the vaccinated cohort than in the unvaccinated cohort within two years after COVID-19 vaccination.

The results showed the possible association between anti-Dsg2 autoantibodies and post-COVID-19 cardiac sequelae.