Abstract Linking COVID-19 Vaccines to Heart Trouble Risk Earns Expression of Concern

Heart attack biomarkers significantly increase in patients after receiving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

Emerging reports raise concerns on the potential association between the COVID-19 vaccines and cardiac manifestations. Since the start of the vaccination campaign, various side effects ranging from severe illness to neurological damage, myocarditis, or heart attacks are being reported.

Studies published in QJM: An International Journal of Medicine and Nature Medicine already linked increased risks of myocarditis, pericarditis, and cardiac arrhythmias to COVID-19 vaccinations, especially after receiving the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

However, a new study reveals that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines increase the possibility of developing Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), a.k.a a heart attack.

The title of abstract 10712, published in Circulation, is corrected from “Mrna COVID Vaccines Dramatically Increase Endothelial Inflammatory Markers and ACS Risk as Measured by the PULS Cardiac Test” to “Observational Findings of PULS Cardiac Test Findings for Inflammatory Markers in Patients Receiving mRNA Vaccines”.

The study is still ahead of print. However, what’s mentioned in the abstract got quite a lot of publicity in the UK.

The Study

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the risk of a heart attack could increase over 5 years in a group of people that are vaccinated with mRNA vaccines.

This research group used the PULS Cardiac Test, a clinically utilized measurement of multiple protein biomarkers. This generates a score predicting the 5-year risk of a new heart attack, called the PULS score.

The score is based on changes from the norm of multiple protein inflammatory biomarkers including:

• Interleukin-16 (IL-16)→ a proinflammatory cytokine
• Soluble Fas (sFAS)→ an inducer of apoptosis — cell suicide
• Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) → a marker for chemotaxis of T-cells into the epithelium and cardiac tissue

“Elevation above the norm increases the PULS score, while decreases below the norm lowers the PULS score. The PULS score has been measured every 3–6 months in our patient population for 8 years.”

The research group tracked the changes of the PULS score and three of the inflammatory markers it measures in all of our patients consecutively receiving the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer.

The report included in this study:

• Total of 566 patients, aged 28 to 97 with an M: F ratio of 1:1
• Patients are seen in a preventive cardiology practice
• Patients had a new PULS test drawn from 2 to 10 weeks following the 2nd COVID shot
• The patients’ new PULS score was compared to the previous PULS score drawn 3 to 5 months previously pre-shot, thus serving as their own control.
• There was no comparison made with unvaccinated patients or patients treated with other vaccines.

Results

Summarizing the results:

• Baseline IL-16 increased from 35+/-20 above the norm to 82 +/- 75 above the norm post-vaccination
• sFas increased from 22+/- 15 above the norm to 46+/-24 above the norm post-vaccination
• HGF increased from 42+/-12 above the norm to 86+/-31 above the norm post-vaccination

Note: the units of the protein inflammatory biomarkers are not mentioned in the abstract.

The endothelium is the lining of the blood vessels. Inflammatory markers could lead to inflammation in the endothelium. Increased levels of multiple endothelial inflammatory markers would indicate these markers are indicators of increased inflammatory activity in this area.

Increased inflammatory activity in the endothelium can cause destabilization of atheromatous plaques — cholesterol-based plaques. Destabilization of these plaques causes blood to clot which can lead to ACS.

There are different forms of ACS, namely:

• The mildest form is called unstable angina. Here, a little bit of blood clotting, what’s called a white thrombus, will reduce the blood supply to cardiac tissue leading to ischemia.
• The second most common form is Non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction. This happens if the blood clotting is more severe than the mildest form.
• The most severe form is ST-elevation myocardial infarction. This happens if the blood clotting is really severe.

These changes resulted in an increase of the pre-vaccination PULS score of predicted 11% 5-year ACS risk to a post-vaccination PULS score of a predicted 25% 5-year ACS risk, based on data that has not been validated in this population.

The authors concluded:

“In conclusion, the mRNA vacs numerically increase (but not statistically tested) the markers IL-16, Fas, and HGF, all markers previously described by others for denoting inflammation on the endothelium and T cell infiltration of cardiac muscle, in a consecutive series of a single clinic patient population receiving mRNA vaccines without a control group.”

These preliminary are worrying if validated by statistical analysis. Further research is needed to confirm these findings.

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