COVID-19 Vaccines in a Cohort of Egyptian Patients with Auto-Immune Rheumatic Diseases

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is considered a global health problem with paramount importance. However, limited data are available regarding safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines on patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases (AIRDs). Aim of Study: To study the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccinations among a cohort of Egyptian patients with auto-immune rheumatic diseases (AIRDs). Patients and Methods: 43 patients with different AIRDs, and 43 age-and sex-matched controls were enrolled in the study. All participants have been vaccinated using the two-dose regime of COVID-19 vaccines. Post-vaccination disease activity and measurement of serum IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 trimeric spike proteins S1/S2 in patients with AIRDs compared to healthy controls were done two to six weeks after the second dose of the vaccine. All participants completed a survey to assess the safety and adverse effects of the vaccines. Results: The mean serum IgG antibody levels in patients with AIRDs was 6753.6±9117.8 BAU/ml compared to 10538.1±13333.9 BAU/ml in the control group with no sig-nificant difference. As regard adverse events, arthralgia after the first dose and local pain after the second dose were statistically higheramong the patients' group. Patients who received Pfizer's vaccine developed higher levels of serum IgG antibodies compared to those who received Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccine (p=0.004 and 0.016 respectively). A statistically lower level of serum IgG antibody was found in patients with AIRDs who received glucocorticoid dose more than 10mg/day compared to who received glucocorticoid dose equal or less than 10mg/daily (p=0.039). Conclusions: The results of the study confirm the efficacy, safety and tolerability of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, thus they should be strongly recommended in patients with AIRDs.