Kidney Biopsy Findings in Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infection or After COVID-19 Vaccination

Background Emerging case series described a temporal association between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccination and de novo or relapsing kidney diseases. We aimed to further understand vaccination-and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated kidney diseases.Methods We present findings from native kidney biopsies of patients recently vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 (n=27) and those with COVID-19 (n=15), reviewed at a single German center. Diagnoses were compared among all native kidney biopsies (n=10,206) obtained between the prepandemic (2019), pandemic (2020), and vaccination periods (2021) to determine whether there was an increase in kidney diseases in the observed periods.Results Biopsy indication was increased serum creatinine and/or new-onset proteinuria. Glomerulopathies (20/27, 74%) were more common than tubulointerstitial diseases in postvaccination patients, with necrotizing GN (8/27, 30%) and primary podocytopathies and other GN types (6/27, 22% each) the most common forms. Acute tubular injury was the most common kidney disease in patients with COVID-19, followed by thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) and necrotizing GN. The postvaccination and COVID-19 infection groups had similar kidney function recovery rates (69% and 73%, respectively). Furthermore, the frequencies of necrotizing GN, pauci-immune GN, TMA, or primary podocytopathies at our center did not increase between 2019 and 2021.Conclusions We observed differences in entity frequencies between the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination or COVID-19 groups, with glomerulopathies being more common in patients after vaccination and tubulointerstitial diseases in patients with COVID-19. Cases of TMA were observed only in the COVID-19 group. We detected no increase in the frequency of necrotizing GN, TMA, or podocytopathies between 2019 and 2021.

Automated summary

A study found a temporal association between SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and kidney diseases, as well as between COVID-19 and kidney diseases. The study compared kidney biopsies before and after vaccination, and found that glomerulopathies were more common in vaccinated patients, while tubulointerstitial diseases were more common in COVID-19 patients. The frequency of certain kidney diseases did not increase between 2019 and 2021.