Despite guidelines that recommend influenza vaccination for patients with alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), new research suggests that such vaccination has little impact on disease outcomes in those patients.
Routine influenza vaccination is advised for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including those with AATD. However, it was unclear if this practice actually affected respiratory outcomes in AATD patients.
To investigate, Dr. Michael A. Campos, from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and colleagues assessed the outcomes of 939 AATD patients who were followed via telephone on a monthly basis during the 2003/2004 influenza season. Vaccination status, disease flare-ups, and healthcare utilization were determined in all subjects.
Roughly 82% of subjects were vaccinated against influenza. Vaccination status was not influenced by gender, age, disease stage, or influenza prevalence area.
Influenza vaccination did not affect the frequency or the severity of disease exacerbations, according to the report in the January issue of Chest.
More unscheduled physician visits were seen in unvaccinated subjects, but no differences in scheduled visits, ER visits, or hospitalizations were identified between the groups. None of the disease outcomes were affected by older age or the influenza prevalence area.
The results suggest that influenza vaccination does not improve disease outcomes in AATD patients, but "we continue to advocate influenza vaccination in this population until further studies are conducted in other influenza seasons with proven vaccine correlation with circulating viral strains," the authors conclude.
Chest 2008;133:49-55.
