ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The clinical effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination in kidney transplant (KT) recipients is lower than in the general population. METHODS: From April to October 2021, 481 KT recipients with COVID-19, included in the Spanish Society of Nephrology COVID-19 Registry, were analyzed. Data regarding vaccination status and vaccine type were collected, and outcomes of unvaccinated or partially vaccinated patients (n = 130) were compared with fully vaccinated patients (n = 351). RESULTS: Clinical picture was similar and survival analysis showed no differences between groups: 21.7% of fully vaccinated patients and 20.8% of unvaccinated or partially vaccinated died (P = 0.776). In multivariable analysis, age and pneumonia were independent risk factors for death, whereas vaccination status was not related to mortality. These results remained similar when we excluded patients with partial vaccination, as well as when we analyzed exclusively hospitalized patients. Patients vaccinated with mRNA-1273 (n = 213) showed a significantly lower mortality than those who received the BNT162b2 vaccine (n = 121) (hazard ratio: 0.52; 95% confidence interval, 0.31-0.85; P = 0.010). CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 severity in KT patients has remained high and has not improved despite receiving 2 doses of the mRNA vaccine. The mRNA-1273 vaccine shows higher clinical effectiveness than BNT162b2 in KT recipients with breakthrough infections. Confirmation of these data will require further research taking into account the new variants and the administration of successive vaccine doses.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Kidney Transplantation , 2019-nCoV Vaccine mRNA-1273 , BNT162 Vaccine , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19 Vaccines/adverse effects , Humans , Kidney Transplantation/adverse effects , RNA, Messenger , SARS-CoV-2 , Transplant Recipients , Vaccination , Vaccines, Synthetic , mRNA VaccinesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There is concern about potential deleterious effects of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEis) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Patients with kidney failure, who often use ACEis/ARBs, are at higher risk of more severe COVID-19. However, there are no data available on the association of ACEi/ARB use with COVID-19 severity in this population. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: From the European Renal Association COVID-19 database (ERACODA), we retrieved data on kidney transplant recipients and patients on dialysis who were affected by COVID-19, between February 1 and October 1, 2020, and had information on 28-day mortality. We used Cox proportional-hazards regression to calculate hazard ratios for the association between ACEi/ARB use and 28-day mortality risk. Additionally, we studied the association of discontinuation of these agents with 28-day mortality. RESULTS: We evaluated 1511 patients: 459 kidney transplant recipients and 1052 patients on dialysis. At diagnosis of COVID-19, 189 (41%) of the transplant recipients and 288 (27%) of the patients on dialysis were on ACEis/ARBs. A total of 88 (19%) transplant recipients and 244 (23%) patients on dialysis died within 28 days of initial presentation. In both groups of patients, there was no association between ACEi/ARB use and 28-day mortality in both crude and adjusted models (in transplant recipients, adjusted hazard ratio, 1.12; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.69 to 1.83; in patients on dialysis, adjusted hazard ratio, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.73 to 1.47). Among transplant recipients, ACEi/ARB discontinuation was associated with a higher mortality risk after adjustment for demographics and comorbidities, but the association was no longer statistically significant after adjustment for severity of COVID-19 (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.36; 95% CI, 0.40 to 4.58). Among patients on dialysis, ACEi/ARB discontinuation was not associated with mortality in any model. We obtained similar results across subgroups when ACEis and ARBs were studied separately, and when other outcomes for severity of COVID-19 were studied, e.g., hospital admission, admission to the intensive care unit, or need for ventilator support. CONCLUSIONS: Among kidney transplant recipients and patients on dialysis with COVID-19, there was no significant association of ACEi/ARB use or discontinuation with mortality.