Effect of Vaccination on Markers of Severity among Elderly Covid-19 Patients-A Retrospective Comparative Analysis.

UNLABELLED

Since December 2019, an emerging coronavirus called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) has been spreading worldwide. Older people and those with comorbidities are more likely to develop severe illness. Vaccines against coronavirus have been developed recently. In India, the two vaccine currently authorized to use are namely ChAdOx1 nCov, Covishield and Covaxin; both of which require 2 shots few weeks apart for adequate protection. Although COVID antibody test has not been done following vaccination in my subjects, it was observed that those who were vaccinated with one or two doses had less clinical severity compared to non vaccinated patients. In this study, we did a comparative analysis of the laboratory markers of severity in elderly COVID patients who were fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated and non vaccinatednon-vaccinated.

MATERIAL

This study is conducted with COVID-19 patients in age group more than 65 years for duration of 6 months. Participants were divided in three group Fully Vaccinated group who received 2 doses, Partially Vaccinated group with only 1 dose and non-vaccinated group. Assessment of inflammatory markers like CRP, LDH and Ferritin, Procalcitonin, RDW and NLR were done in the three groups.

OBSERVATION

A total of 52 fully vaccinated, 120 partially vaccinated and 458 non vaccinated patients were included in this study. The mean LDH, ferritin, procalcitonin, RDW, NLR in the fully vaccinated group were 381.61±167.53 U/l, 286.77±226.73 ng/ml, 0.40±0.32 ng/ml, 14.23±1.80 % and 8.85±10.36 respectively; that in the partially vaccinated group were 413.89±209.75 U/l, 387.44±317.55 ng/ml, 1.08±2.98 ng/ml, 14.45±1.42 % and 10.20±12.30 respectively; and in the non vaccinated group were 583.97±638.90 U/l, 479.03±332.85 ng/ml, 5.30±15.91 ng/ ml, 14.93±1.96 % and 11.97±12.57 respectively. Significant differences were found in terms of LDH, Ferritin, RDW and CRP among the groups with p values of <0.01, <0.0001, <0.01 and <0.05 respectively. However, no significant difference (p>0.05) was observed in terms of procalcitonin and NLR among the groups although the average values were found to increase from fully vaccinated to partially vaccinated to non-vaccinated groups.

CONCLUSION

Vaccination was associated with less severity when analysed in terms of laborotary parameters in COVID-19 elderly patients.