Doctor vigilance urged for rare instances of stroke following COVID-19 vaccinations
pharmafile | May 26, 2021 | News story | Research and Development |
Doctors have been urged to be vigilant for signs of stroke after three rare instances have occurred in Oxford-AstraZeneca patients.
Two women in their 30s and a man in his 40s suffered clots in their large arteries, leading to ischaemic stroke.
One of these women died, but experts have stressed these instances are still extremely rare.
A team of experts from the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at University College London (UCL) Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and other medical organisations, said the NHS must look out for patients with ischaemic stroke within about one month of vaccination.
Those who are found to have this should be “urgently evaluated” for a very rare syndrome called vaccine-induced thrombosis and thrombocytopenia (VITT).
Experts say it is important to note that instances of stroke are more common in those who have contracted COVID-19.
Ischaemic strokes are the most common kind of stroke and are caused when a blood clot stops the flow of blood to the brain.
The number of people who experience blood clots from VITT after a COVID-19 vaccine is therefore extremely low at about one per 100,000 doses.
David Werring, Professor of Clinical Neurology at UCL and lead author of the report said: “Although cerebral venous thrombosis − an uncommon stroke type in clinical practice − is now recognised as being the most frequent presentation of VITT, our study shows that the much more common ischaemic stroke, due to arterial thrombosis blocking blood flow to part of the brain, may also be a presenting feature of vaccine-induced thrombosis.
“Of course, both types of thrombosis remain extremely rare, but doctors need to be vigilant if patients present with typical stroke symptoms (e.g. face, arm or leg weakness, or impaired speech) due to a blocked artery any time between days 4 and 28 post-vaccination.”
Lilly Subbotin
