Vascular retinal findings after COVID-19 vaccination in 11 cases: a coincidence or consequence?

• Autor(a) principal: Silva,Letícia S. C. da
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Finamor,Luciana P. S., Andrade,Gabriel C., Lima,Luiz H., Zett,Claudio, Muccioli,Cristina, Sarraf,Eduardo P., Marinho,Paula M., Peruchi,Julia, Oliveira,Raiza D. de L., Giralt,Lena, Charcan,Ivonne, Fonollosa,Alex, Diaz,Jose D., Davis,Janet L., Nascimento,Heloisa, Belfort Jr,Rubens
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos brasileiros de oftalmologia (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-27492022000200158
• topic: COVID-19; Coronavirus infection; Vaccine; Arterial occlusion; Venous occlusion; Susac syndrome

ABSTRACT Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to assess vascular retinal findings temporally related to COVID-19 vaccination. With greater information regarding all possible future adverse events, we hope to understand the real dimension and relevance of what was presented. Methods: Eleven patients with visual complaints after COVID-19 vaccination were enrolled. Data on the following were included: age, sex, vaccine, time of symptom onset, systemic findings, medical history, best-corrected visual acuity, and ocular findings by slit-lamp biomicroscopy as well as multimodal retinal imaging (color fundus, red-free photography, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography, optical coherence tomography angiography, and fluorescein-angiography). Inclusion criteria were the presence of ophthalmologic signs within 30 days after the first or second dose of any COVID-19 vaccine. Results: Of 11 patients, five had arterial occlusion (45.4%), four had venous occlusion (36.4%), and two (18.2%) had nonspecific vascular alterations suggestive of retinal ischemia such as cotton-wool spots. The mean age was 57 (SD = 16; range: 27-84) years. The mean time of symptoms onset was 10 (SD = 5.4; range: 3-16) days. Nine patients were female (81.8%). Systemic risk factors were observed in 36.4% of patients. Two patients had both neurological and visual symptoms, with arterial occlusion. Overall, 36.4% patients had COVID-19 in the previous year. Seven patients (63.6%) received ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine. Conclusions: Our data suggest that retinal events temporally related to COVID-19 vaccination are possible but are very rare. The relationship of these events with post-COVID-19 vaccination warrants further attention to derive a meaningful conclusion.