Case Series of Potential Cardiac Inflammation Associated With Various SARS-CoV-2 Vaccinations Assessed by Cardiac MRI

Constantin Jahnke; Patrick Doeblin; Radu Tanacli; Undine Witt; Matthias Schneider; Christian Stehning; Burkert Pieske; Sebastian Kelle

doi:10.3389/fcvm.2022.829392

Case Series of Potential Cardiac Inflammation Associated With Various SARS-CoV-2 Vaccinations Assessed by Cardiac MRI

Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022 Apr 8:9:829392. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2022.829392. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Constantin Jahnke^{1

2}, Patrick Doeblin^{1

2}, Radu Tanacli^{1

3}, Undine Witt^{1

2}, Matthias Schneider^{1

3}, Christian Stehning⁴, Burkert Pieske^{1

2

3}, Sebastian Kelle^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiology, German Heart Centre Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
² German Centre for Cardiovascular Research DZHK, Partner Site Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
³ Department of Cardiology, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
⁴ Philips Healthcare Systems, Hamburg, Germany.

Abstract

Serious adverse events associated with new vaccines targeting SARS-CoV-2 are of high interest to the public and to public health as a worldwide mass immunization campaign has been initiated to contain the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We describe a series of 4 individuals with signs of a myocarditis/pericarditis according to cardiac MRI results in temporal association with currently in the European Union authorized SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. We found mild abnormal MRI results independent of the type of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. There is a need of continuing monitoring outcomes of myocarditis cases after COVID-19 vaccination as recently published cases suggest an uncomplicated short-term course whereas the long-term implications are not yet known but taking the available evidence into account the benefits of using COVID-19 vaccines still clearly outweigh the risks.

Keywords: CMR; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 vaccination; myocarditis; pericarditis.

Publication types

Case Reports