Poster presenter: Ingrid Jyssum, MD, University of Oslo
Poster Session D
8:30 – 10:30 a.m. ET Tuesday, Nov. 9
All ACR Convergence 2021 poster presentations are available on demand to registered meeting participants through March 11, 2022.
What is your poster about?
This poster is about serological response to standard, two-dose SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients with inflammatory arthritis and IBD, and the effect of a third dose in initial nonresponders. In addition, we looked at safety following vaccination. Most patients have an adequate serological response, but the proportion of nonresponders is significantly higher in patients (9%) than controls (2%), and antibody levels in patients are significantly lower in patients than controls. Some medication groups had lower response rates after standard vaccination: TNFi in combination with methotrexate or azathioprine (86%), JAKi (78%), and abatacept (50%). A third dose in primary nonresponders resulted in a significant response in 81% of patients.
Why did you decide to investigate this topic?
There is an unmet need to understand how well our patients are protected from the vaccines. In the pandemic, many patients asked us for advice regarding vaccine effect and safety, and we did not have evidence-based answers for them.
What are you working on next related to this research?
Currently, we are working on T cell analyses. In addition, we’re working on responses in rituximab-treated patients, as well as longitudinal data to assess the persistence of the serological response in our patients compared to healthy controls.
What excites you most about your work?
What excites me most is the patients’ and my colleagues’ engagement in the work and the immediate relevance of the results. Though the topic of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine response has been looked at by other investigators, our cohort is among the largest to date. Our results can aid clinicians in giving advice to patients and may help policymakers in making vaccine guidelines.