New data on sinus and cerebral vein thromboses

 

A supra-regional study team of the German Society of Neurology (DGN) under the project leadership of the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital RWTH Aachen has re-evaluated the cases of sinus and cerebral vein thrombosis after COVID-19 vaccinations in Germany.

Their conclusion: The risk is very low overall, but people of all ages should be fully informed about it, especially women.

On 4 May 2021, a study conducted in Germany under the project leadership of the Department of Neurology was published as a preprint describing the occurrence of cerebrovascular events, especially sinus and cerebral venous thrombosis in the brain, after vaccination against SARSCoV-2. Technical support for the data collection also came from the University Hospital from the Institute for Medical Informatics.

What was striking about the results was that not only younger women had a higher risk of cerebral sinus and cerebral vein thrombosis after vaccination with the vaccine ChAdOx1 (AstraZeneca), but also older women. This is a new safety signal for the vaccine.

The DGN emphasises that the results do not call the vaccination into question, not even the AstraZeneca vaccine. In principle, the benefits of the vaccines approved in Germany outweigh the very low risks many times over. The conclusion of the study team is rather that the risk of thrombotic events after vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine is extremely low overall, but that people of all age groups, especially women, must be comprehensively informed about possible risks, especially with regard to possible symptoms that should be observed afterwards.

The new safety signal must be communicated transparently, says the DGN.

Schulz J, Berlit P, Diener H, Gerloff C, Greinacher A, Klein C, Petzold G, Poli S, Piccininni M, Kurth T Röhrig R, Steinmetz H, Thiele T. COVID-19 vaccine associazed cerebrovascular events in Germany: a descriptive study. Preprint, https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.30.21256383v1