the association between covid-19 vaccination and rheumatoid arthritis relapse: a cross-sectional study

Background :coronavirus disease (covid-19) was one of the viral pandemics that affected many patients, including those with rheumatoid arthritis (ra). vaccination in covid-19 patients has sometimes led to a relapse of ra, but few studies have been conducted in this field.objectives :in this study, we investigated the association between the vaccination of covid-19 patients and the relapse of ra. methods :this is a cross-sectional study. the patients participating in this study are those with ra who have undergone covid-19 vaccination. ninety-eight patients (convenience sampling) were analyzed in this study. they were selected from the patients admitted to the rheumatology department of al-zahra hospital, isfahan, between 2020 and 2021. the patients' ra disease was under control and had a disease activity score-28 (das-28 < 2.6). all patients were examined by a rheumatologist before participating in the study. results :in dose i, the sinopharm vaccine had a higher number of patients with das-28 improvement and worsening compared to the other vaccines. there was no change in das-28 status in patients who received the sputnik vaccine (p = 0.55). at dose ii, the sinopharm vs. barekat vaccine had a higher number of patients with das-28 improvement and worsening compared to the other vaccines (p = 0.51). at dose iii, only one patient who received the barekat vaccine had a das-28 improvement. in contrast, five patients who received the sinopharm vaccine had a worsening of das-28 compared to the pre-injection period (p = 0.21). conclusions :no association was found between the type of vaccines in all three doses and das-28 in the patients.