Vaccination Cuts Severe COVID-19 Risk in Heart Transplant Patients

THURSDAY, April 28, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Among orthotopic heart transplant (OHT) recipients, COVID-19 vaccination is associated with fewer COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths and no heart transplant-specific adverse events, according to a study published online April 27 in JAMA Cardiology.

Laura L. Peters, D.N.P., from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, and colleagues used data from all adult recipients of OHT at a single U.S. heart transplant program to assess the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in OHT recipients.

The researchers found that of the 436 OHT patients, 106 were infected with COVID-19. Among the 366 vaccinated patients, 19.7 percent had COVID-19 infections, 4.1 percent required hospitalizations (including four intensive care unit [ICU] admissions), and three patients died (0.8 percent). Among the 70 unvaccinated patients, 48.6 percent were infected, 14.3 percent were hospitalized, three required ICU admission, and three died (4.3 percent). There was a lower risk for all outcomes with COVID-19 vaccination (risk ratios: infection, 0.41; hospitalization, 0.29; death, 0.19). Six months after COVID-19 vaccination, there was no echocardiographic evidence of graft dysfunction, clinically significant rejection, or allosensitization among the vaccinated OHT recipients.

"Even though the immunogenic response to COVID-19 vaccination is lower in patients who receive a heart transplant, the vaccine appears to be safe and is associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death, suggesting it is imperative that all heart transplant recipients obtain the COVID-19 vaccine," the authors write.

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