Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
General Electric Research, Niskayuna, NY 12309, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2023 Mar 3;23(5):2789. doi: 10.3390/s23052789.
Based on the observations made in rheumatology clinics, autoimmune disease (AD) patients on immunosuppressive (IS) medications have variable vaccine site inflammation responses, whose study may help predict the long-term efficacy of the vaccine in this at-risk population. However, the quantitative assessment of the inflammation of the vaccine site is technically challenging. In this study analyzing AD patients on IS medications and normal control subjects, we imaged the inflammation of the vaccine site 24 h after mRNA COVID-19 vaccinations were administered using both the emerging photoacoustic imaging (PAI) method and the established Doppler ultrasound (US) method. A total of 15 subjects were involved, including 6 AD patients on IS and 9 normal control subjects, and the results from the two groups were compared. Compared to the results obtained from the control subjects, the AD patients on IS medications showed statistically significant reductions in vaccine site inflammation, indicating that immunosuppressed AD patients also experience local inflammation after mRNA vaccination but not in as clinically apparent of a manner when compared to non-immunosuppressed non-AD individuals. Both PAI and Doppler US were able to detect mRNA COVID-19 vaccine-induced local inflammation. PAI, based on the optical absorption contrast, shows better sensitivity in assessing and quantifying the spatially distributed inflammation in soft tissues at the vaccine site.
基于在风湿病诊所的观察，接受免疫抑制（IS）药物治疗的自身免疫性疾病（AD）患者的疫苗接种部位炎症反应存在差异，对其进行研究可能有助于预测该高危人群疫苗的长期疗效。然而，定量评估疫苗接种部位的炎症具有一定的技术挑战。在这项针对接受 IS 药物治疗的 AD 患者和正常对照受试者的研究中，我们使用新兴的光声成像（PAI）方法和已建立的多普勒超声（US）方法，在接种 mRNA COVID-19 疫苗后 24 小时对疫苗接种部位的炎症进行了成像。共有 15 名受试者参与，包括 6 名接受 IS 药物治疗的 AD 患者和 9 名正常对照受试者，并对两组的结果进行了比较。与对照组的结果相比，接受 IS 药物治疗的 AD 患者的疫苗接种部位炎症明显减少，表明免疫抑制的 AD 患者在接种 mRNA 疫苗后也会经历局部炎症，但与未接受免疫抑制治疗的非 AD 个体相比，其炎症表现并不那么明显。PAI 和多普勒 US 均可检测到 mRNA COVID-19 疫苗引起的局部炎症。基于光吸收对比的 PAI 在评估和量化疫苗接种部位软组织中空间分布的炎症方面具有更高的灵敏度。
