Immunogenicity and tolerability of COVID‐19 vaccination in peritoneal dialysis patients—A prospective observational cohort study.

Background: In peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients, information on the immunogenicity and tolerability of SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccination is still scarce. We compared the immunogenicity and tolerability of SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccination of PD patients with that of medical personnel. Methods: In a prospective observational cohort study, PD patients and immunocompetent medical personnel were evaluated for SARS‐CoV‐2 spike‐IgG‐ and Nucleocapsid‐IgG‐antibody‐levels before, 2 weeks after the first, and 6 weeks after the second SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccination and vaccine tolerability after the first and second vaccination. Results: In COVID‐19‐naïve PD patients (N = 19), lower SARS‐CoV‐2‐spike‐IgG‐levels were found compared with COVID‐19‐naïve medical personnel (N = 24) 6 weeks after second vaccination (median 1438 AU/ml [25th–75th percentile 775–5261] versus 4577 [1529–9871]; p = 0.045). This finding resulted in a lower rate of strong vaccine response (spike‐IgG ≥ 1000 AU/ml) of COVID‐19‐naïve PD patients compared with medical personnel (58% versus 92%; p = 0.013), but not for seroconversion rate (spike‐IgG ≥ 50 AU/ml: 100% vs. 100%; p > 0.99). After first vaccination, COVID‐naïve PD patients presented with significantly fewer side effects than medical personnel (number of any side effect: 1 [1–2] vs. 4 [1–7]; p = 0.015). A similar pattern with slightly decreased frequencies of side effects was observed for tolerability of second SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccination in PD patients and medical personnel (number of any side effects: 1 [1–1] vs. 2 [1–5]; p = 0.006). Conclusions: SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccination in COVID‐19‐naïve PD patients appeared to induce a very high rate of seroconversion but a substantially lower rate of patients with a strong response compared with medical personnel. Vaccination appeared to be safe in the PD patients studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]