Youth ER Visits, Hospitalizations for 'Chest Pain' Double After Vaccination: Peer-Reviewed Publication in 'Translational Pediatrics'
Need for hospitalization for chest pain increased from pre-pandemic 26.2% to 40.9% following vaccine rollout.
A November publication in the peer-reviewed journal Translational Pediatrics looked at the link between mRNA COVID-19 vaccination and heart diseases like pericarditis and myocarditis in adolescents aged 12 to 18 years.
Pericarditis is inflammation of the pericardium, the sac-like tissue layer that surrounds the heart. Myocarditis is inflammation of the myocardium, which is the heart muscle.
Categorized by pre-pandemic, during the pandemic pre- and post-COVID vaccination, the study authors reviewed records of adolescents aged 12 to 18 years old who presented to the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) emergency department (ED) with chest pain between 1 January 2019 to 31 January 2022.
KKH represents Singapore’s largest public hospital specializing in healthcare for women and children.
Key Findings:
Sharp Increase in ED Chest Pain Attendances: The study found that the rate of ED attendances for chest pain among adolescents saw a significant increase after the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccination. Before the vaccination, chest pain cases formed a median of only 0.5% of all ED visits. This rate nearly doubled, reaching 0.9%, post-vaccination. In simpler terms, more children visited the ED for chest pain relative to other complaints after the vaccine was introduced.
Elevated Hospital Admission Rates for Chest Pain: Alongside the increase in ED attendances, the study also observed a substantial rise in the number of these chest pain cases that required hospital admission. Pre-pandemic, 26.2% of the chest pain cases in the ED led to admissions. This figure escalated to 40.9% following the vaccine rollout, indicating that not only were more children coming in with chest pain, but a larger proportion of these cases were serious enough to necessitate hospitalization.
Concerns Over Myocarditis: The study highlights an increase in concerns over vaccine-related myocarditis. This is reflected in the sharp rise in cardiac enzyme testing, from virtually 0% pre-vaccination to 26.1% post-vaccination, a marker of increased vigilance for heart-related complications potentially linked to the vaccine.
The authors confirm, “Paediatric chest pain is largely non-cardiac in origin. ED chest pain attendance rates and resource utilisation increased after the introduction of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in adolescents.”