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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · J Pediatr Infect Dis 2024; 19(02): 075-082
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1777091
Original Article

Suspected Myocarditis after mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination among South Korean Adolescents

Mi Jin Kim
1   Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
,
Jin Hee Kim
2   Department of Emergency Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
,
Hyun Ok Jun
3   Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Severance Cardiovascular Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
,
Kyung Min Kim
4   Division of Cardiology, Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Incheon, Republic of Korea
,
Min Sub Jeung 
5   Department of Pediatrics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
,
Jun Sung Park 
6   Department of Pediatrics, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
› Author Affiliations Funding None.
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Abstract

Objective Since vaccination for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been initiated, rare cases of COVID-19 mRNA vaccination-associated myocarditis (VAM) have been reported worldwide. This study aimed to report the short-term outcomes and the clinical presentation of VAM in South Korean adolescents.

Methods In this prospective multicenter study across five tertiary hospitals in South Korea, patients aged 12 to 17 years with symptoms of VAM were included from October 18, 2021, to April 30, 2022. We performed laboratory tests, electrocardiography, chest radiography, echocardiography, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging studies on these patients.

Results A total of 14 patients were diagnosed with VAM during the study period. The median age of the patients was 15.2 years (interquartile range [IQR], 14.6–15.9) and 11 patients (78.6%) were male. All patients had received a messenger RNA Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The median latent period from vaccination to symptom onset was 1 (range, 0–8; IQR, 0.8–3.5) day. Chest pain was the most common symptom (11/14, 78.6%), and the median duration of symptoms was 1 week. Except for one patient (7.1%) who was admitted to intensive care unit, most patients (13/14, 93.8%) had a minor and short clinical course without an intensive treatment including an immune modulator.

Conclusion VAM in South Korean adolescents had self-limiting clinical courses as reported by previous studies. Despite the small number of cases, our findings, consistent with previous studies, revealed that East Asian adolescents might have a similar or even milder clinical course than adolescents of other ethnicities.

Keywords

COVID-19 vaccines - myocarditis - adolescent - mRNA vaccine - COVID-19

Authors' Contribution

J.S.P. conceptualized the study, contributed to formal analysis, software, writing—review and editing. All authors contributed to data curation. M.J.K. contributed to methodology and writing—original draft.


Supplementary Material



Publication History

Received: 02 July 2023

Accepted: 17 October 2023

Article published online:
29 December 2023

© 2023. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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