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May 3, 2002

U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Influenza Vaccine Pilot Study in Acute Coronary Syndromes and Planned Percutaneous Coronary Interventions" Circulation Online (circ.ahajournals.org/) (04/15/02); Gurfinkel, Enrique; Fuente, Ricardo Leon de la; Mendiz, Oscar

A single-blind study, involving 200 myocardial infarction patients and 101 planned angioplasty/stent patients without unstable coronary disease, sought to find whether influenza vaccinations caused ischemic events in myocardial infarction patients and patients scheduled for percutaneous coronary angioplasty.  A six-month follow-up with patients who received either a placebo or the flu vaccine assessed the primary outcome to determine if the patient died, had a reinfarction, or was rehospitalized for ischemia.  Two percent of patients in the vaccine group died during the six months, while 8 percent died in the control group, and 11 percent of the vaccine group suffered one of the three endpoints, compared with 23 percent in the control group.  The researchers concluded that the influenza vaccination may reduce the risk of death and ischemic events for infarction and angioplasty patients during flu season due to a humoral immune response.

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