Antibody dynamics after tick-borne encephalitis and measles-mumps-rubella vaccination in children post early thymectomy

Objective: In a previously published prospective controlled cohort study, thymectomized children, who had thymectomy in early childhood due to open heart surgery, completed a three-dose immunization regimen in order to analyze the clinical impact of immunological alterations in thymectomized patients after exposure to a new antigen (tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) vaccine). In the previous study, thymectomized children showed significantly lower TBEV IgG antibody levels after the second vaccination when compared to healthy age-matched controls, but a normal response after the third vaccination. Methods: The…