Acute tubulointerstitial nephritis following COVID-19 mRNA vaccine: A case report

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), still affects the world, as studies for vaccinations and treatments continue. One of the many types of COVID-19 vaccines is the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. Several side effects of this type of vaccine have been reported in the literature, including renal complications. However, acute tubulointerstitial nephritis (ATIN) is a very rare complication of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. Here we present a 50-year-old, previously healthy female who presented with renal failure following a COVID-19 mRNA BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccination and diagnosed as ATIN in the kidney biopsy. To the best of our knowledge, only two cases of ATIN following COVID-19 vaccine have been reported and one of them had an underlying kidney disease. This is the second case of ATIN following COVID-19 vaccine in a healthy individual.

Keywords: Acute kidney injury, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Messenger RNA, Nephritis, Vaccine