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. 2023 Dec 8;12(24):7578.
doi: 10.3390/jcm12247578.

Real-Life Experience in the Efficacy and Safety of COVID-19 Vaccination in Patients with Advanced Cirrhosis

Amr Shaaban Hanafy  1 , Ahmed Embaby  2 , Sara Mohamed Salem  1 , Ahmed Behiry  3 , Hasnaa Ali Ebrahim  4 , Hany Ahmed Elkattawy  5   6 , Sally Yussef Abed  7   8 , Moneer E Almadani  9 , Mohamad El-Sherbiny  5
Affiliations

Real-Life Experience in the Efficacy and Safety of COVID-19 Vaccination in Patients with Advanced Cirrhosis

Amr Shaaban Hanafy et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

COVID-19 infections accelerate liver decompensation and serious liver-related co-morbidities. The aim is to evaluate the safety and impact of COVID vaccines on hepatic disease progression in patients with advanced liver disease and to identify parameters that predict the occurrence of complications. The study involved 70 patients with advanced liver disease who were vaccinated with different COVID vaccines from January 2021 to April 2022. They were evaluated clinically. The laboratory investigation included a complete blood count, liver and kidney function tests, calculation of CTP and MELD scores, plasma levels of ammonia, abdominal ultrasound, and upper GI endoscopy. Twenty patients had experienced complications 64 ± 12 days from the last dose of a vaccination. Twenty patients (28.6%) developed hepatic decompensation and hypothyroidism (n = 11, 15.7%), and five (7.14%) patients developed splanchnic thrombosis. There were no COVID-19 reinfections except for two patients who received Sinopharm and developed vaccine-associated enhanced disease (2.9%). Complications after COVID vaccinations were correlated with ALT (r = 0.279, p = 0.019), serum sodium (r = -0.30, p = 0.005), creatinine (r = 0.303, p = 0.011), liver volume (LV) (r = -0.640, p = 0.000), and MELD score (r = 0.439, p = 0.000). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that LV is the only independent predictor (p = 0.001). LV ≤ 682.3 has a sensitivity of 95.24% and a specificity of 85.71% in predicting complications with an AUC of 0.935, p < 0.001. In conclusion, the hepatic reserve and prognosis in liver cirrhosis should be evaluated prior to COVID vaccinations using the MELD score and liver volume as promising risk stratification criteria. In summary, the research proposes a novel triaging strategy that involves utilizing the MELD score and liver volume as risk stratification parameters of the hepatic reserve and prognosis of advanced liver cirrhosis prior to COVID immunization to determine who should not receive a COVID vaccination.

Keywords: COVID-19; MELD; complications; liver cirrhosis; liver volume; vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bar chart showing the different types of administered COVID vaccines among the studied patients.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The incidence of the COVID-19 vaccine-related complications.
Figure 3
Figure 3
ROC curves demonstrate the liver volume and MELD score cutoff values as predictors of problems following COVID vaccination.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Liver volume measured via abdominal ultrasound.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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