Background: Pneumococcal infections are a life-threatening disease in hemodialysis patients and vaccination against pneumococcus is an effective prevention. The current study aims to evaluate the immune response and maintenance of the anti-pneumococcal antibody titer in hemodialysis patients to the 23 valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine alone and 13 valent conjugated with 23 valent polysaccharide vaccine.
Materials and Methods: This study is a randomized clinical trial that was performed at Loghman Hakim Hospital in Tehran, Iran in 2017. A total of 70 patients undergoing hemodialysis were randomly assigned to intervention (22 patients) and control (23 patients). In the control group, only one dose of the PPSV23 vaccine while patients in the intervention group were injected initially with PCV13, and then after at least 8 weeks PPSV23 vaccine. The outcome of this study is first and sixth-month antibody titer after injection of the PPSV23 vaccine.
Results: The obtained result showed no significant difference between the two groups in the first month and sixth months. The results indicate that both the intervention group (treated with PCV13+PPSV23) and the control group (treated with PPSV23 only) experienced a significant impact from the first to the sixth month. Additionally, there was a noticeable effect on the levels of anti-pneumococcal antibodies during the first to sixth month between the intervention and control groups. In addition, the difference between the antibody titer of the first month and the sixth month was not significant in the two groups.
Conclusion: The anti-pneumococcal antibody titer in hemodialysis patients does not show a clear difference after two vaccine injections and one vaccination.