Influenza vaccination and cardiovascular events in patients with ischaemic heart disease and heart failure: A meta-analysis.

Modin D, Lassen MCH, Claggett B, Johansen ND, Keshtkar-Jahromi M, Skaarup KG, Nealon J, Udell JA, Vardeny O, Solomon SD, Gislason G, Biering-Sørensen T. Influenza vaccination and cardiovascular events in patients with ischaemic heart disease and heart failure: A meta-analysis. European journal of heart failure. 2023 Sep 1; 25(9):1685-1692.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

AIM: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) enrolling patients at high cardiovascular risk have found that influenza vaccination may reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events. We performed an updated meta-analysis assessing the effect of influenza vaccination on the incidence of cardiovascular events in patients with ischaemic heart disease or heart failure. METHODS AND RESULTS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE and other sources to identify RCTs examining the effect of influenza vaccination on the incidence of cardiovascular events assessed as efficacy outcomes in patients with ischaemic heart disease or heart failure. Eligible studies followed patients for at least one influenza season, defined as a minimum duration of 6?months. The primary endpoint was a composite of cardiovascular death, acute coronary syndrome, stent thrombosis or coronary revascularization, stroke or heart failure hospitalization. The secondary endpoints were cardiovascular death and all-cause death. Two investigators independently identified and extracted data from studies. Results were compared using hazard ratios (HRs) in both random effects and fixed effects models. We included five peer-reviewed and one non peer-reviewed RCTs for a total of 9340 patients. Five trials included patients with ischaemic heart disease (n? = 4211) and one trial included patients with heart failure (n? = 5129). Influenza vaccination was associated with a reduced incidence of the primary composite endpoint (random effects HR [rHR] 0.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.63-0.88, p? < 0.001, I ? = 52%), cardiovascular death (rHR 0.63, 95% CI 0.42-0.95, p? = 0.028, I ? = 58%) and all-cause death (rHR 0.72, 95% CI 0.54-0.95, p? = 0.0227, I ? = 52%). Results were similar when non peer-reviewed data were excluded. CONCLUSION: In this meta-analysis of available RCTs in patients at high cardiovascular risk, influenza vaccination was associated with a reduced incidence of cardiovascular events, cardiovascular death and all-cause death as compared to placebo or no treatment.