Health Rounds: Shingles vaccine may lower the risk of heart attack and stroke

By Nancy Lapid

Aug 28 (Reuters) - Hello Health Rounds readers! As if protecting against horrible, debilitating pain is not enough, today we report on potential heart protective properties of shingles vaccines. Speaking of hearts, we also feature a small study that showed great promise for children with life-threatening heart valve disorders.

Shingles vaccines may protect against heart attack, stroke

Getting the vaccine to prevent shingles lowers the chances of having a heart attack or stroke, researchers reported in advance of the 2025 European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid.

The risk reduction, seen in data pooled from nine earlier studies, was true in adults of all ages who received either of the two herpes zoster vaccines – the two-shot Shingrix vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline GSK.L or Merck's MRK.N single-dose Zostavax, which was discontinued after findings that its protection faded over time - the researchers said.

Overall, vaccination against shingles was associated with an 18% reduction in risk of heart attack or stroke in adults age 18 and older, and a 16% risk reduction in adults age 50 and older.

For just Shingrix, there was a 21% lower risk of either outcome.

For every thousand people, shingles vaccination was linked with 1.2 to 2.2 fewer major adverse heart events per year, the researchers also found.

None of the studies included in the analysis looked at death rates.

Previous research has shown a transient increased risk of stroke and heart attack after a case of shingles, but it remains unclear whether vaccination explains the lower risks seen in this analysis.

“While our findings are encouraging, there are some limitations to the available data,” study leader Dr. Charles Williams of GSK said in a statement.

Almost all the evidence came from observational studies, which cannot prove cause and effect. And the studies involved generally healthy patients, not people at higher risk of cardiovascular events, Williams noted.

“Further research studies are now needed to find out whether this association can be attributed to an effect of herpes zoster vaccination,” he said.

Partial heart transplants for children with valve disorders

Children with life-threatening congenital heart valve defects for whom donor hearts are not available can benefit from partial heart transplants, a small study suggests.

In the first 19 patients to undergo partial heart transplants using only a donor’s valves, all valves were still functioning during an average follow-up of six months, according to a report in JAMA from surgeons at Duke University.

The youngest patient was 2 days old at the time of surgery. Eighteen patients were under age 16.

So far, the transplanted valves have been growing as the children grow, researchers reported.

“This study shows that partial heart transplantation is not just a one-time success, it's a versatile option that can be used across a range of heart conditions,” study leader Dr. Joseph Turek said in a statement.

“We’re seeing valves that grow, function well, and require less immunosuppressant medication than a full heart transplant. That’s a huge win for these kids and their families.”

None of the patients has needed a further procedure on the new heart valves or had complications from immunosuppression.

In many cases, the procedures were done as so-called domino transplants, in which children receiving complete heart transplants for non-valve conditions donated their usable old heart valves to the partial heart recipients.

How patients and their new valves will fare over longer periods is not clear yet, the authors said.

While partial heart transplantation has the potential to provide growing and living tissue for valve replacement, it "is not a panacea but rather a promising step forward that requires further refinement,” the researchers said.