TY - JOUR
T1 - COVID-19 mortality may be reduced among fully vaccinated solid organ transplant recipients
AU - Sandoval, Micaela
AU - Nguyen, Duc T.
AU - Huang, Howard J.
AU - Yi, Stephanie G.
AU - Ghobrial, R. Mark
AU - Gaber, A. Osama
AU - Graviss, Edward A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the Houston Methodist Center for Outcome Research’s CURATOR team for providing data using in this analysis.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Sandoval et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Background Solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients are at increased risk for morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 due to their immunosuppressed state and reduced immunogenicity from COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. This investigation examined the association between COVID-19 mRNA vaccination status and mortality among SOT recipients diagnosed with COVID-19. Methods & findings A retrospective, registry-based chart review was conducted investigating COVID-19 mortality among immunosuppressed solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients in a large metropolitan healthcare system in Houston, Texas, USA. Electronic health record data was collected from consecutive SOT recipients who received a diagnostic SARS-CoV-2 test between March 1, 2020, and October 1, 2021. The primary exposure was COVID-19 vaccination status at time of COVID-19 diagnosis. Patients were considered ‘fully vaccinated’ at fourteen days after completing their vaccine course. COVID-19 mortality within 60 days and intensive care unit admission within 30 days were primary and secondary endpoints, respectively. Among 646 SOT recipients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 at Houston Methodist Hospital between March 2020, and October 2021, 70 (10.8%) expired from COVID-19 within 60 days. Transplanted organs included 63 (9.8%) heart, 355 (55.0%) kidney, 108 (16.7%) liver, 70 (10.8%) lung, and 50 (7.7%) multi-organ. Increasing age was a risk factor for COVID-19 mortality, while vaccination within 180 days of COVID-19 diagnosis was protective in Cox proportional hazard models with hazard ratio 1.04 (95% CI: 1.01–1.06) and 0.31 (0.11–0.90), respectively). These findings were confirmed in the propensity score matched cohort between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients. Conclusions This investigation found COVID-19 mortality may be significantly reduced among immunosuppressed SOT recipients within 6 months following vaccination. These findings can inform vaccination policies targeting immunosuppressed populations worldwide.
AB - Background Solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients are at increased risk for morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 due to their immunosuppressed state and reduced immunogenicity from COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. This investigation examined the association between COVID-19 mRNA vaccination status and mortality among SOT recipients diagnosed with COVID-19. Methods & findings A retrospective, registry-based chart review was conducted investigating COVID-19 mortality among immunosuppressed solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients in a large metropolitan healthcare system in Houston, Texas, USA. Electronic health record data was collected from consecutive SOT recipients who received a diagnostic SARS-CoV-2 test between March 1, 2020, and October 1, 2021. The primary exposure was COVID-19 vaccination status at time of COVID-19 diagnosis. Patients were considered ‘fully vaccinated’ at fourteen days after completing their vaccine course. COVID-19 mortality within 60 days and intensive care unit admission within 30 days were primary and secondary endpoints, respectively. Among 646 SOT recipients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 at Houston Methodist Hospital between March 2020, and October 2021, 70 (10.8%) expired from COVID-19 within 60 days. Transplanted organs included 63 (9.8%) heart, 355 (55.0%) kidney, 108 (16.7%) liver, 70 (10.8%) lung, and 50 (7.7%) multi-organ. Increasing age was a risk factor for COVID-19 mortality, while vaccination within 180 days of COVID-19 diagnosis was protective in Cox proportional hazard models with hazard ratio 1.04 (95% CI: 1.01–1.06) and 0.31 (0.11–0.90), respectively). These findings were confirmed in the propensity score matched cohort between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients. Conclusions This investigation found COVID-19 mortality may be significantly reduced among immunosuppressed SOT recipients within 6 months following vaccination. These findings can inform vaccination policies targeting immunosuppressed populations worldwide.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0279222
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0279222
M3 - Article
C2 - 36542654
AN - SCOPUS:85144590774
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 17
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 12 December
M1 - e0279222
ER -