Switch it up: Why using different arms for vaccine doses could be a good idea
Taking a contralateral approach boosted immune response for COVID-19 vaccines, study shows.
It might be worth asking patients to switch it up for their COVID-19 vaccines, with a study showing alternating arms between doses may produce a greater immunity than giving doses ipsilaterally.
This is the conclusion reached by US researchers, who looked at antibody responses in nearly 1000 adults who received the initial two-dose regimen of Pfizer’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines.
They found that those who received the second dose in the contralateral arm developed significantly higher SARS-CoV-2-specific serum antibodies compared to ipsilateral arm vaccination.
This was reflected in total SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-specific immunoglobulin, as well as spike-specific immunoglobulin G and neutralisation titres.
