Aims: Hemodialysis patients have high COVID-19 severity and mortality rates. For this high-risk group of hemodialysis patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, early SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is recommended to prevent infection and severe disease. Thus far, few reports have evaluated COVID-19 antibody titers in hemodialysis patients. In this study, we investigated the time course of antibody titers acquired by vaccination in patients on dialysis.
Materials and methods: The anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 IgG (anti-SP-IgG) antibody titers were compared between 33 outpatient maintenance hemodialysis patients and 32 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects. Antibody tests were performed at five time points: 6 months after the 2nd vaccination, immediately before the 3rd vaccination (8 months after the 2nd vaccination), and 2 weeks, 1 month, and 3 months after the 3rd vaccination.
Results: The dialysis patient group had significantly lower values of anti-SP-IgG antibody titers than the control group 6 months after the 2nd vaccination (433.7 ± 36.24 vs. 650.2 (427.2 - 759.4) (AU/mL), p = 0.006) and immediately before the 3rd vaccination (219.3 (129.4 - 423.4) vs. 443.3 (267.1 - 600.4) (AU/mL), p = 0.034), but no significant differences were observed after the 3rd vaccination (19,000.0 (11,000.0 - 3,6000.0) vs. 23,500.0 (20,250.0 - 29,000.0) (AU/mL), p = 0.538).
Conclusion: This study confirmed that patients undergoing hemodialysis were proven to have acquired sufficient antibody titers after the vaccination.