Flu Shots Reduce Deaths After Heart Attack January 23, 2004
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Vaccination against influenza significantly reduces the 1-year risk of
death among people who have survived a heart attack and those with heart disease requiring
angioplasty, according to Argentinean investigators.
The research group at Foundation Favaloro in Buenos Aires previously found a 6-month-long benefit
from flu vaccination in such patients. Their latest report in the European Heart Journal describes a
continuing benefit during a year following this group, after the flu season had passed.
Dr. Enrique P. Gurfinkel and his colleagues originally enrolled 200 patients admitted to hospital
with a heart attack, along with 101 patients with heart disease who were being scheduled for
angioplasty and placement of stents.
Altogether, 151 subjects were randomly assigned to have a flu vaccination and 150 to have no
vaccination.
The death rate after one year was 6 percent in the vaccination group and 17 percent in the
control group. Also, fewer in the vaccinated group had a heart attack or needed to be
hospitalized during the year.
Flu vaccination was a particular benefit for nonsmokers and those older than 65.
It seems unlikely that protection against catching flu was the reason why vaccinated patients did
better, Gurfinkel's team notes. Rather, they suggest, the vaccine may give a non-specific boost to
the immune system, which in turn helps people overcome the effects of a heart attack or heart
procedure.
"However," the investigators conclude, "larger trials are needed to evaluate the real impact on flu
vaccination" in this situation.
SOURCE: European Heart Journal, January 2004.