Background Coronavirus Disease‐19 (COVID‐19) has high mortality in kidney transplant recipients (KTR), and vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome‐coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is vital for this population. Although the humoral response to messenger RNA vaccines was shown to be impaired in KTR, there is a lack of data regarding the antibody response to inactivated vaccines. We investigated the antibody response to two consequent doses of the inactivated SARS‐CoV‐2 vaccine (CoronaVac; Sinovac Biotech, China). Methods A total of 118 patients from two centers were included. The levels of anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 immunoglobulin‐G antibodies against the nucleocapsid and spike antigens were determined with enzyme immunoassay (DIA.PRO; Milano, Italy) before the vaccine and one month after the second dose of the vaccine. Thirty‐three patients were excluded due to antibody positivity in the serum samples obtained before vaccination. Results Eighty‐five patients, 47 of whom were female, with a mean age of 46 ± 12, were included in the statistical analysis. The maintenance immunosuppressive therapy comprised tacrolimus (88.2%), mycophenolate (63.6%), and low‐dose steroids (95.3%) in the majority of the patients. After a median of 31 days following the second dose of the vaccine, only 16 (18.8%) patients developed an antibody response. The median (IQR) antibody level was 52.5 IU/ml (21.5–96). Age (48 vs. 38, p = .005) and serum creatinine levels (1.14 vs. 0.91, p = .04) were higher in non‐responders and were also found to be independently associated with the antibody response (odds ratio (OR): 0.93, p = 0.012 and 0.15, p = 0.045, respectively) in multivariate analysis. Conclusion In this study, we found the antibody response to the inactivated vaccine to be considerably low (18.8%) in KTR. Increased age and impaired renal function were associated with worse antibody response. Based on the knowledge that mRNA vaccines yield better humoral responses, this special population might be considered for additional doses of mRNA vaccination.

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BackgroundApplication and consequences of hemodialysis treatment may differ between genders; focusing on these differences may be useful to optimize outcomes.MethodsData from 1 999 648 hemodialysis sessions performed in 10 984 (3316 incident and 7668 prevalent) patients, treated in 55 centers of the European Clinical Database (EuCliD)–Turkey, were analyzed, and various demographic, clinical, biochemical, therapeutic and prognostic parameters were compared.ResultsThere were 1905 male and 1411 female incident and 4339 male and 3329 female prevalent patients. For females, the mean age in incident (61.8 ± 14.9 years) and prevalent (58.3 ± 15.2 years) patients was higher than for males (60.2 ± 14.8 and 56.5 ± 14.9 years, respectively) (P < 0.001 for both analyses). Also, body mass index was higher, while the hemoglobin level, and the percentage of interdialytic weight gain and arteriovenous fistula were lower. Serum phosphorus was similar in both genders in incident cases, while it was lower in prevalent female patients. Serum parathyroid hormone levels were lower in incident, but higher in prevalent male cases. Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents and vitamin D preparations were more frequently used in female incident and prevalent patients. Hospitalization was more frequent in prevalent females, while it did not differ significantly in the incident cases. Overall, no significant difference was observed in survival rates at 3 years in both incident and prevalent male and female patients.ConclusionsMany parameters differ significantly between female and male dialysis patients. Considering the effects of sex on several parameters may be a valuable approach for achieving better outcomes when formulating treatment strategies in this patient population.

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