COVID-19 vaccination impact on presensitization status of patients awaiting pancreas and kidney/pancreas transplantation

Blood transfusions, pregnancies and previous organ transplantation can cause immunization. Infection and vaccination could alter the recipient sensitization status. Here we evaluated COVID-19 vaccination effect on presensitization status of Pancreas/Renal-Pancreas waitlisted patients in Pisa Hospital (Italy). We enrolled 27 patients (15 female and 12 male) which received a complete vaccination cycle (CVC) of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines (BNT162b2-Pfizer/BioNTech or mRNA-1273-Moderna);15/27 patients received third dose (booster). X-MAP technology (Luminex-beads) was used to identify class I and II anti-HLA antibody specificity. The population was studied before vaccination (BV) and 2 weeks after CVC and booster. Sensitivity status change (qualitative analysis) and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) changes (semi-quantitative analysis) were calculated by Excel using specific functions created “ad hoc”: AntigenDifference() and AntigenValueSum(). We observed new specificities after CVC in 11/27 patients: class I (29%), class II (33%) and class I + II (22%);after the booster class I, class II and class I + II increased by 35%, 50% and 28%, respectively. No statistically significant differences were observed in the MFI mean value between CVC, booster and BV group (p > 0.05, Mann-Whitney U test). COVID-19 vaccination could induce changes in the percentage of circulating antibodies directed against HLA and should be considered in the pre-transplant risk assessment.

‘We’ in quarantine: working with groups of parents from in-presence to remote

The authors reflect on the experience of working with groups of parents of children with mental or physical disabilities, which had started long before the Covid lockdown and continued online after a brief interruption due to the pandemic. The reflection is still ongoing, and it is not possible for the moment to draw definitive conclusions. The experience of the groups working online, despite the initial mistrust, has proved useful, albeit in a peculiar way, different from before. In a group already formed and accustomed to sharing anxieties and problems, it was possible to maintain the vitality of relationships, the group continuing to function as a thinking container. The participants had the opportunity to reflect on the new experiences they were having at home with their children, even discovering in themselves new parenting skills. The inevitable changes in the setting have required for the psychotherapists leading the groups to pay special attention in maintaining their psychoanalytic listening skills, and they have also triggered some questions, which still need to be thought about. © 2021 Association of Child Psychotherapists.