Safety and tolerability of SARS-Cov-2 vaccination in patients with myasthenia gravis: A multicenter experience.
Eur J Neurol
; 29(8): 2505-2510, 2022 08.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1853748
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, myasthenia gravis (MG) patients have been identified as subjects at high risk of developing severe COVID-19, and thus were offered vaccination with priority. The lack of direct data on the safety and tolerability of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in MG have contributed to vaccine hesitancy. To address this issue, the safety and tolerability of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were assessed in a large cohort of MG patients from two referral centers.METHODS:
Patients with confirmed MG diagnosis, consecutively seen between October and December 2021 at two MG centers, were enrolled. Demographics, clinical characteristics, and information regarding SARS-CoV-2 infection/vaccination were extracted from medical reports and/or collected throughout telephonic or in-person interviews.RESULTS:
Ninety-eight (94.2%) of 104 patients included were administered at least two vaccine doses 4 weeks before the interview or earlier, and among them, 63 of 98 (64.2%) have already received the "booster" dose. The most frequently used vaccines were BNT162b2-Pfizer-BioNTech and mRNA-1273-Moderna. Overall, only minor side effects were reported, most commonly local pain and fever. MG worsening after vaccination was observed in eight of 104 (7.7%) cases. The frequency of worsening among muscle-specific tyrosine kinase MG cases (3/9, 33.3%) was significantly higher compared to other serological subgroups. Spontaneous symptom regression was observed in six of eight cases. Twelve of 104 (11.5%) patients had SARS-CoV-2 infection, and none of the SARS-CoV-2-infected MG patients worsened after vaccination.CONCLUSIONS:
Our data support the safety and tolerability of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which should be strongly recommended in MG patients, who could be at higher risk of complications if exposed to SARS-CoV-2 infection.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19 Vaccines
/
COVID-19
/
Myasthenia Gravis
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
/
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Eur J Neurol
Journal subject:
Neurology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ene.15348
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