Severity of COVID-19 Pneumonia in Kidney Transplant Recipients According to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination

Seunghyeok Choi; Hanbi Lee; Sang Hun Eum; Ji-Won Min; Hye Eun Yoon; Chul Woo Yang; Byung Ha Chung

doi:10.3947/ic.2023.0083

Severity of COVID-19 Pneumonia in Kidney Transplant Recipients According to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination

Infect Chemother. 2023 Dec;55(4):505-509. doi: 10.3947/ic.2023.0083.

Authors

Seunghyeok Choi¹, Hanbi Lee^{1

2}, Sang Hun Eum^{2

3}, Ji-Won Min^{2

4}, Hye Eun Yoon^{2

3}, Chul Woo Yang^{1

2}, Byung Ha Chung^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
² Transplantation Research Center, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
³ Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
⁴ Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Bucheon St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
⁵ Transplantation Research Center, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea. chungbh@catholic.ac.kr.

Abstract

We reviewed 24 kidney transplantat recipients (KTRs) who had radiologically confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. Enrolled KTRs were divided into a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-vaccination (+) group (n = 18) and a vaccination (-) group (n = 6). Clinical outcomes of the two groups including death, pulmonary outcome, and renal outcome were compared. COVID-19 pneumonia was worse in vaccination (-) KTRs. Two out of six vaccination (-) KTRs needed continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) and mechanical ventilator (MV) and expired. In contrast, only one KTR expired and required CRRT and MV out of 18 vaccination (+) KTRs. Our results suggest that SARS-CoV-2 vaccination attenuates severity of COVID-19 pneumonia in KTRs.

Keywords: COVID-19 pneumonia; Kidney transplant recipient; SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

Grants and funding

HI22C1529/Korea Health Industry Development Institute/Republic of Korea