Patients vaccinated against COVID-19 present better coronary flow, myocardial work and NTproNP levels than non-vaccinated at 4 months post COVID infection

Abstract Introduction COVID-19 affected patients present impaired subclinical markers of cardiovascular and endothelial function post resolution of infection. Whether vaccination impedes impairment of myocardial and vascular function has not been clarified. Purpose We investigated the effect of COVID-19 infection on markers of endothelial, vascular and myocardial function in vaccinated and non-vaccinated subjects at four months after the infection. Methods We recruited 60 vaccinated and 60 non-vaccinated patients with similar clinical characteristics, who were examined in a dedicated post-COVID-19 outpatient clinic during a scheduled follow-up visit at four months after a confirmed COVID-19 infection. We measured (i) perfused boundary region (PBR) of the sublingual arterial (increased PBR indicates reduced endothelial glycocalyx thickness), (ii) flow-mediated dilatation (FMD), (iii) coronary flow reserve (CFR) by Doppler echocardiography, (iv) pulse wave velocity (PWV) and central systolic blood pressure (cSBP), (v) global left and right ventricular longitudinal strain (GLS), (vi) myocardial global work index (GWI) global constructive work (GCW), global wasted work (GWW) and the myocardial global work efficiency (GWE) and v) NTproBNP blood levels. Results Among vaccinated patients 54,2% had mild disease, 33,3% had moderate disease and 12,5% had severe disease, while among non-vaccinated 29,1% had mild disease, 32,9% had moderate disease and 38% had severe disease(p<0.05). At four months, vaccinated patients presented with higher LVGLS, GCW values and CFR compared to non-vaccinated (p>0.05 table), while GWI, GWW and GWE were similar between the two groups(p>0.5). Moreover, in vaccinated patients RVGLS and RV FWLS were significantly higher than in non-vaccinated patients (p>0.05). Also, NTproBNP leves were significantly lower in vaccinated than in non-vaccinated patients (p<0.05). At four months, in vaccinated patients , we observed a marginally lower brachial and central systolic blood pressure compared with non-vaccinated (p=0.045, p=0.048 respectively.) Vaccinated patients displayed similar FMD and PWV values compared to non-vaccinated (p>0.05 for all the comparisons). Conclusion Patients vaccinated against COVID-19 suffered from milder disease resulting to better cardiac function and lower NTproNP levels than non-vaccinated 4 months post COVID infection.