Abstract
Aim: Vaccines have been mainly described to provide cardioprotective
effects with rare reports showing rare association with myopericarditis.
However, vaccines have not been well studied regarding its effects on
heart rhythm disorders. Methods: we used vaccine adverse event reporting
system (VAERS) between 1990-2021 to search for atrial fibrillation and
other less prevalent arrhythmia. Disproportionality signal analysis was
conducted by measuring reporting odds ratio (ROR) with 95% confidence
interval (CI). Results: Over 1,300,000 adverse events were reported
between 1990-2021. Among these events, atrial fibrillation was reported
2149 times in association with various vaccines. 90% of atrial
fibrillation was associated with COVID-19 vaccines with ROR of 13.18 (CI
95%: 11.3 to 15.4) (P<0.0001). Interestingly, influenza
vaccines, polyvalent polysaccharide pneumococcal (PPSV23) vaccine,
pneumococcal 13-valent (PCV13) vaccine, zoster vaccine, and
tetanus-containing vaccines were significantly associated with reduced
atrial fibrillation. Finally, our analysis showed that COVID-19 vaccines
were associated with much higher incidence of other cardiac arrhythmias
compared with other vaccines. Conclusions: While vaccines have not been
linked to heart rhythm disorders, the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines
in 2020 showed significant association with atrial fibrillation. This
study showed unprecedent detrimental effect of COVID-19 vaccines on
atrial fibrillation and warrants the need to take that into
consideration when prescribing COVID-19 vaccines.