“We report a case series of 9 patients [in Lausanne, Switzerland] with stage III hypertension documented within minutes of vaccination during the first 30 days, of which 8 were symptomatic…
Our case series suggests that a fraction of hypertensive patients may react with symptomatically significant increases in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. A stress response is likely in view of the public debate, in addition to pain response and white coat effect—the latter being associated with age and female sex.2 However, the relatively low heart rate (median, 73 bpm) may soften this hypothesis…
The mRNA vaccines have received intense scrutiny for immediate hypersensitivity reactions in the wake of an initial report signaling 21 cases of anaphylaxis. Hypertension, on the contrary, has not been mentioned explicitly as an adverse event in both safety/immunogenicity trials. However, both phase I/II and III clinical trials for the mRNA vaccines included predominantly younger populations with a mean and median age of 31 and 52 years for the BNT162b2 vaccine4 and 31 and 51 for the mRNA-1273 vaccine.5 Although more data are needed to understand the extent and the mechanism of hypertension after mRNA-based vaccination, our data indicate that in elderly patients with a history of hypertension or significant prior cardiovascular comorbidities, prevaccination control of blood pressure and post-vaccination monitoring, including symptom screening, may be warranted.”
Published under Free Access.