Fulminant Giant Cell Myocarditis following Heterologous Vaccination of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19

Abstract

A 48-year-old female patient underwent a heart transplantation for acute fulminant myocarditis, following heterologous vaccination with the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19. She had no history of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 infection. She did not exhibit clinical signs or have laboratory findings of concomitant infection before or after vaccination. Heart transplantation was performed because her heart failed to recover with venoarterial extracorporeal oxygenation support. Organ autopsy revealed giant cell myocarditis, possibly related to the vaccines. Clinicians may have to consider the possibility of the development of giant cell myocarditis, especially in patients with rapidly deteriorating cardiac function and myocarditis symptoms after COVID-19 vaccination.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• vaccination
• giant cell myocarditis