Faculty Collaboration Database

Lower prevalence of BK virus infection in African American renal transplant recipients: a prospective study. Transplantation 2012 Feb 15;93(3):291-6

Date

12/20/2011

Pubmed ID

22179402

DOI

10.1097/TP.0b013e31823ec05a

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-84856459284 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   17 Citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Because the occurrence of BK virus (BKV) nephritis is far less frequent than BK viremia or viruria, analysis of risk factors for BKV nephritis as an endpoint could lead to erroneous findings. We undertook a prospective study to evaluate the risk factors for the occurrence of BKV infections using BK viruria and viremia as endpoints.

METHODS: Two hundred forty renal only transplant recipients were prospectively enrolled into our institutional review board-approved single center study to evaluate various aspects of posttransplant BKV infection. All patients were followed up for a minimum of 6 months posttransplant.

RESULTS: Of the 240 subjects, 154 were whites, 61 African Americans, and 25 belonged to other races. A total of 94 developed BKV infection (any degree of BK viruria or viremia) whereas 146 developed no infection. Among these, 33 had BK viruria alone, 61 had BK viremia with viruria and 25 had significant viremia defined as BKV DNA more than 10,000 copies/mL of plasma. Lower proportion of African Americans developed BKV infection, 14 of 61 (23%), as opposed to whites, 67 of 154 (47%). Logistic regression model showed lower risk of any BKV infection in African American recipient race (OR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.17-0.82; P=0.016) and higher risk of significant BKV infection with occurrence of acute rejection (OR, 3.9; 95% CI, 1.31-11.8; P=0.015). The Kaplan-Meier analysis shows a trend toward greater freedom from BKV infection in African Americans as opposed to other racial groups (P=0.33).

CONCLUSION: Renal transplant recipients of African American race had a lower risk of posttransplant BKV infection compared with whites, independent of other confounding risk factors.

Author List

Sood P, Senanayake S, Sujeet K, Medipalli R, Saad E, Vasudev B, Bresnahan BA, Johnson CP, Hariharan S

Authors

Barbara A. Bresnahan MD Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Christopher P. Johnson MD Professor in the Surgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Ehab R. Saad MD Director, Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Kumar Sujeet MD Staff Physician in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Brahm Vasudev MD Associate Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
BK Virus
Female
Humans
Immunosuppressive Agents
Isoantibodies
Kidney Transplantation
Male
Middle Aged
Multivariate Analysis
Polyomavirus Infections
Prevalence
Prospective Studies
Risk Factors
Tumor Virus Infections