Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal (Aug 2016)

Successful Salvage Treatment of Resistant Acute Antibody-Mediated Kidney Transplant Rejection with Eculizumab

  • Saif A. Khan,
  • Dawood Al-Riyami,
  • Yasser W. Al-Mula Abed,
  • Saja Mohammed,
  • Marwa Al-Riyami,
  • Nabil M. Al-Lawati

DOI
https://doi.org/10.18295/squmj.2016.16.03.020
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 3
pp. 371 – 374

Abstract

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Antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR) jeopardises short- and long-term transplant survival and remains a challenge in the field of organ transplantation. We report the first use of the anticomplement agent eculizumab in Oman in the treatment of a 61-year-old female patient with ABMR following a living unrelated kidney transplant. The patient was admitted to the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital in Muscat, Oman, in 2013 on the eighth day post-transplantation with serum creatinine (Cr) levels of 400 μmol/L which continued to rise, necessitating haemodialysis. A biopsy indicated ABMR with acute cellular rejection. No improvement was observed following standard ABMR treatment and she continued to require dialysis. Five doses of eculizumab were administered over six weeks with a subsequent dramatic improvement in renal function. The patient became dialysis-free with serum Cr levels of 119 μmol/L within four months. This case report indicates that eculizumab is a promising agent in the treatment of ABMR.

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