No Cover Image

Journal article 372 views 37 downloads

Association of COVID-19 vaccines ChAdOx1 and BNT162b2 with major venous, arterial, or thrombocytopenic events: A population-based cohort study of 46 million adults in England

William N. Whiteley Orcid Logo, Samantha Ip Orcid Logo, Jennifer A. Cooper Orcid Logo, Thomas Bolton Orcid Logo, Spencer Keene Orcid Logo, Venexia Walker Orcid Logo, Rachel Denholm Orcid Logo, Ashley Akbari Orcid Logo, Efosa Omigie, Sam Hollings, Emanuele Di Angelantonio Orcid Logo, Spiros Denaxas Orcid Logo, Angela Wood Orcid Logo, Jonathan A. C. Sterne, Cathie Sudlow Orcid Logo, (CVD-COVID-UK consortium)

PLOS Medicine, Volume: 19, Issue: 2, Start page: e1003926

Swansea University Author: Ashley Akbari Orcid Logo

  • 60272.pdf

    PDF | Version of Record

    © 2022 Whiteley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

    Download (1.29MB)

Abstract

BackgroundThromboses in unusual locations after the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine ChAdOx1-S have been reported, although their frequency with vaccines of different types is uncertain at a population level. The aim of this study was to estimate the population-level risks of hospitalised...

Full description

Published in: PLOS Medicine
ISSN: 1549-1676
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2022
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa60272
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Abstract: BackgroundThromboses in unusual locations after the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine ChAdOx1-S have been reported, although their frequency with vaccines of different types is uncertain at a population level. The aim of this study was to estimate the population-level risks of hospitalised thrombocytopenia and major arterial and venous thromboses after COVID-19 vaccination.Methods and findingsIn this whole-population cohort study, we analysed linked electronic health records from adults living in England, from 8 December 2020 to 18 March 2021. We estimated incidence rates and hazard ratios (HRs) for major arterial, venous, and thrombocytopenic outcomes 1 to 28 and >28 days after first vaccination dose for ChAdOx1-S and BNT162b2 vaccines. Analyses were performed separately for ages <70 and ≥70 years and adjusted for age, age2, sex, ethnicity, and deprivation. We also prespecified adjustment for anticoagulant medication, combined oral contraceptive medication, hormone replacement therapy medication, history of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis, and history of coronavirus infection in analyses of venous thrombosis; and diabetes, hypertension, smoking, antiplatelet medication, blood pressure lowering medication, lipid lowering medication, anticoagulant medication, history of stroke, and history of myocardial infarction in analyses of arterial thromboses. We selected further covariates with backward selection.Of 46 million adults, 23 million (51%) were women; 39 million (84%) were <70; and 3.7 million (8.1%) Asian or Asian British, 1.6 million (3.5%) Black or Black British, 36 million (79%) White, 0.7 million (1.5%) mixed ethnicity, and 1.5 million (3.2%) were of another ethnicity. Approximately 21 million (46%) adults had their first vaccination between 8 December 2020 and 18 March 2021.The crude incidence rates (per 100,000 person-years) of all venous events were as follows: prevaccination, 140 [95% confidence interval (CI): 138 to 142]; ≤28 days post-ChAdOx1-S, 294 (281 to 307); >28 days post-ChAdOx1-S, 359 (338 to 382), ≤28 days post-BNT162b2-S, 241 (229 to 253); >28 days post-BNT162b2-S 277 (263 to 291). The crude incidence rates (per 100,000 person-years) of all arterial events were as follows: prevaccination, 546 (95% CI: 541 to 555); ≤28 days post-ChAdOx1-S, 1,211 (1,185 to 1,237); >28 days post-ChAdOx1-S, 1678 (1,630 to 1,726), ≤28 days post-BNT162b2-S, 1,242 (1,214 to 1,269); >28 days post-BNT162b2-S, 1,539 (1,507 to 1,572).Adjusted HRs (aHRs) 1 to 28 days after ChAdOx1-S, compared with unvaccinated rates, at ages <70 and ≥70 years, respectively, were 0.97 (95% CI: 0.90 to 1.05) and 0.58 (0.53 to 0.63) for venous thromboses, and 0.90 (0.86 to 0.95) and 0.76 (0.73 to 0.79) for arterial thromboses. Corresponding aHRs for BNT162b2 were 0.81 (0.74 to 0.88) and 0.57 (0.53 to 0.62) for venous thromboses, and 0.94 (0.90 to 0.99) and 0.72 (0.70 to 0.75) for arterial thromboses. aHRs for thrombotic events were higher at younger ages for venous thromboses after ChAdOx1-S, and for arterial thromboses after both vaccines.Rates of intracranial venous thrombosis (ICVT) and of thrombocytopenia in adults aged <70 years were higher 1 to 28 days after ChAdOx1-S (aHRs 2.27, 95% CI: 1.33 to 3.88 and 1.71, 1.35 to 2.16, respectively), but not after BNT162b2 (0.59, 0.24 to 1.45 and 1.00, 0.75 to 1.34) compared with unvaccinated. The corresponding absolute excess risks of ICVT 1 to 28 days after ChAdOx1-S were 0.9 to 3 per million, varying by age and sex.The main limitations of the study are as follows: (i) it relies on the accuracy of coded healthcare data to identify exposures, covariates, and outcomes; (ii) the use of primary reason for hospital admission to measure outcome, which improves the positive predictive value but may lead to an underestimation of incidence; and (iii) potential unmeasured confounding.ConclusionsIn this study, we observed increases in rates of ICVT and thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1-S vaccination in adults aged <70 years that were small compared with its effect in reducing COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, although more precise estimates for adults aged <40 years are needed. For people aged ≥70 years, rates of arterial or venous thrombotic events were generally lower after either vaccine compared with unvaccinated, suggesting that either vaccine is suitable in this age group.
College: Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
Funders: The British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre (grant No SP/19/3/34678 awarded to Health Data Research (HDRUK) funded codevelopment (with NHS Digital) of the trusted research environment provision of linked datasets, data access, user software licences, computational usage, and data management and wrangling support. Support was also provided through the Data and Connectivity and Longitudinal Health and Wellbeing National Core Studies, which were established through the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser’s National Core Studies program to coordinate COVID-19 priority research. Consortium partner organisations funded the time of contributing data analysts, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, and clinicians. WW is supported by the Chief Scientist’s Office (CAF/01/17). CS, AW and WW are supported by Stroke Association (SA CV 20/100018). SI was funded by a BHF-Turing Cardiovascular Data Science 419 Award (BCDSA\100005) and is funded by the International Alliance for Cancer Early Detection, a partnership between Cancer Research UK C18081/A31373, Canary Center at Stanford University, the University of Cambridge, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, University College London and the University of Manchester. AMW is supported by the BHF-Turing Cardiovascular Data Science Award (BCDSA/100005) and by core funding from UK MRC (MR/L003120/1), BHF (RG/13/13/30194, RG/18/13/33946), and NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC/1215/20014). AMW and SD are part of the BigData@Heart Consortium, funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative-2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 116074.
Issue: 2
Start Page: e1003926