Humoral Response and SARS-CoV-2 Infection Risk following the Third and Fourth Doses of the BNT162b2 Vaccine in Dialysis Patients
Yael Einbinder, Jeffrey Perl, Naomi Nacasch, Alon Bnaya, Linda Shavit, Daniel Erez, Moshe Shashar, Tamar Halperin, Ayelet Grupper, Sydney Benchetrit, Ori Wand, Keren Cohen‐Hagai
Abstract
The optimal SARS-CoV-2 vaccination schedule in dialysis patients and the potential need for a fourth vaccine dose are debatable. We prospectively assessed the humoral responses to three and four doses of BNT162b2 among dialysis patients. The study included 106 dialysis patients; 60 (56.6%) and 46 (43.4%) received 3 and 4 vaccine doses, respectively. Anti-spike (anti-S) antibody titers significantly increased after the third vaccine dose, followed by a decline, yet still remained higher than all previous measurements. The fourth vaccine dose led to another profound rise in anti-S titers. The absolute increase following the fourth dose correlated with response to the third dose. Infection risk however was similar between patients vaccinated with three or four doses.