The Impact of COVID-19 Vaccination on Oxidative Stress and Cardiac Fibrosis Biomarkers in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction (STEMI), a Single-Center Experience Analysis

The relationship between the classical cardiac biomarker and acute myocardial infarction (STEMI) in patients with COVID-19 is far from being elucidated. Furthermore, superoxide dismutase (SOD), a marker for oxidative stress, was associated with cardiac ischemia. Also, Galectin-3 is significant for defining the relationship between cardiac fibrosis and COVID-19. There are no studies on the effect of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection and vaccination on patients with STEMI and biomarkers above-mentioned.

Aim: our single-center prospective study assesses the relationship between COVID-19 infection with/without vaccination and the value of SOD and Galectin-3 in STEMI patients.

Material and methods: In total, 93 patients with STEMI and SARS-CoV-2 virus infection were included in the analysis, patients were divided in two groups based on COVID-19 vaccination status. Echocardiographic and laboratory investigations for cardiac ischemia, oxidative stress, and cardiac fibrosis biomarkers were investigated.

Results: In total, 93 patients were included, the majority of which were male (72.0%), 45.2% (n = 42) were vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2; the mean age of vaccinated patients is 62 years, and 57% (n = 53) are smokers; blood pressure is found with a higher frequency in unvaccinated people (62.7%) compared to 28.6% in vaccinated people (p = 0.015), and 90.5% of the vaccinated people presented STEMI, compared with 96.1% of the unvaccinated ones. Revascularization with one stent was achieved in 47.6% of the vaccinated people and 72.5% for the unvaccinated people (p = 0.015). Galectin-3 was slightly more reduced in the vaccinated patients compared to the unvaccinated patients (0.73 vs. 0.99; p = 0.202), and the average level of Cu/ZnSOD was slightly more reduced in vaccinated patients compared to the unvaccinated patients (0.84 vs. 0.91; p = 0.740).

Conclusions: Regarding patient's SARS-CoV-2 infection functional status, the results from our single-center analysis did not find a statistically significant decrease in oxidative stress and cardiac fibrosis biomarkers along with cardiovascular complication following STEMI treated with percutaneous coronary angioplasty (PCI) in the case of patients with COVID-19 vaccination compared with patients who did not receive COVID-19 vaccine. Anyway, our data suggest that contemporary PCI techniques may offer an alternative revascularization strategy that enables complex CAD COVID-19 patients to be safely discharged from hospital.