International Journal of Infectious Diseases (Dec 2017)

Preemptive anti-cytomegalovirus therapy in high-risk (donor-positive, recipient-negative cytomegalovirus serostatus) kidney transplant recipients

  • Jumpei Hasegawa,
  • Shuji Hatakeyama,
  • Sachiko Wakai,
  • Kazuya Omoto,
  • Masayoshi Okumi,
  • Kazunari Tanabe,
  • Makiko Mieno,
  • Hiroki Shirakawa

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 65
pp. 50 – 56

Abstract

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Objectives: Universal prophylaxis and preemptive therapy are used to prevent cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease post-transplantation. Data regarding which strategy is superior are sparse, especially in high-risk recipients (donor CMV seropositive (D+) and recipient CMV seronegative (R−)). Methods: This retrospective, single-center cohort study included recipients who underwent kidney transplantation between 2009 and 2015. The incidence of CMV infection/disease and patient and graft outcomes were analyzed and compared between high-risk recipients (D+/R−) and intermediate-risk recipients (D+/R+ or D−/R+), all managed with preemptive therapy. Results: Of 118 kidney transplant recipients, 21 were high-risk and 97 were intermediate-risk. Over a median follow-up period of 3 years, asymptomatic CMV infection developed significantly more frequently in high-risk patients than in intermediate-risk patients (38.1% vs. 16.5%, p = 0.04), and CMV disease developed in a similar manner (28.6% vs. 3.1%, p < 0.01). Among high-risk patients, CMV infection developed within the first 3 months post-transplantation and CMV disease within the first 9 months post-transplantation. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed no difference in the probability of mortality (log-rank p = 0.63) or graft loss (log-rank p = 0.50) between the patient groups. Graft rejection occurred more frequently in high-risk than in intermediate-risk patients, but the difference was not significant (log-rank p = 0.24). Conclusions: These results suggest that further studies on universal prophylaxis in high-risk patients are needed to elucidate whether preventing CMV infection/disease during the early post-transplant period leads to better outcomes, especially in terms of reducing graft rejection. Keywords: Cytomegalovirus, Prophylaxis, Preemptive therapy, Kidney transplantation, Acute rejection