Korean J Transplant.  2022 Nov;36(Supple 1):S97. 10.4285/ATW2022.F-2185.

Association of COVID-19 vaccination and COVID-19 infection risk in heart transplantation recipients

• Yoo S
• Kim SE
• Oh J
• Jung J
• Lee K
• Lee CJ
• Kang SM

• KMID: 2535613
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4285/ATW2022.F-2185

Abstract

Background
Orthotopic heart transplant (OHT) recipients are vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection. However, there are few studies studying the clinical impact of COVID-19 vaccination in OHT patients. We aimed to evaluate the COVID-19 infection and related clinical outcomes following vaccination in OHT recipients.
Methods
We retrospectively investigated 180 patients alive who underwent OHT from November 1994 to June 2022 at a single tertiary center. We compared the COVID-19 infection rate and related clinical outcomes between vaccinated and non-vaccinated OHT patients.
Results
Of the 180 patients (mean age 49 years, male 62.7%), 111 (61.7%) were vaccinated and 69 (38.3%) were not vaccinated. Among them, a total of 60 (33%) patients were infected by COVID-19. The infection rate of COVID-19 in vaccinated patients was tended to be low compared to non-vaccinated patients (28.8% vs. 40.9%, P=0.143). Then, among patients who received OHT with-in 1 year, the rate of COVID-19 infection was significantly lower in patients with vaccination than those without vaccination (3.1% vs. 25.0%, P=0.035). A total 21 patients were hospitalized due to pneumonia with COVID-19 infection and one patient died from COVID-19 infection. In hospitalized patients, vaccination was tended to be related to lower risk for pneumonia (38.1% vs. 61.9%, P=0.143).
Conclusions
The COVID-19 vaccination seemed to reduce the COVID-19 infection and related pneumonia risk in OHT patients. Especially, in patients who had OHT within 1 year, vaccination could significantly reduce the COVID-19 infection risk.