Chest CT Of Pneumonia Patients Reveals Efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccine
Assessing chest CT findings offers an additional approach to demonstrating the efficacy of different COVID-19 vaccines in decreasing the impact of a COVID-19 diagnosis, as per the study published in the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR).
"Pneumonia frequency and severity were lower in patients with full vaccination by mRNA and adenovirus vector vaccines experiencing breakthrough infections, in comparison with unvaccinated patients," wrote corresponding author Davide Bellini from the department of radiological sciences, oncology, and anatomical pathology at "Sapienza" University of Rome.
‘New study identified that the frequency of an absence of pneumonia was 15% in unvaccinated patients, versus 51% and 29% in patients fully vaccinated with BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1-S vaccines.’
Bellini and colleagues' single-center study included 467 patients who underwent chest CT between December 15, 2021, and February 18, 2022, during hospitalization for symptomatic COVID-19, confirmed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay.
216 patients were unvaccinated, while 167 and 84 patients were fully vaccinated-having received a second dose at least 14 days before COVID-19 diagnosis-by the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine or the ChAdOx1-S adenovirus vector vaccine, respectively.
The frequency of an absence of pneumonia was 15% in unvaccinated patients, versus 51% and 29% in patients fully vaccinated with BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1-S vaccines, respectively. Additionally, mean CT-SS was significantly higher in unvaccinated patients than in patients fully vaccinated with BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1-S vaccines.
"The visual observation by radiologic imaging of the protective effect of vaccination on lung injury in patients with breakthrough infections provides additional evidence supporting the clinical benefit of vaccination," the authors of this AJR article reiterated.
Source: Medindia