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Renal Transplantation |



* Department of Pediatrics, Division of Nephrology, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington;
Division of Pediatric Nephrology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida; and
EMMES Corp., Rockville, Maryland
Address correspondence to: Dr. Jodi M. Smith, Division of Nephrology, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, University of Washington, 4800 Sand Point Way NE, M1–5, Seattle, WA 98105. Phone: 206-987-2524; Fax: 206-987-2636; E-mail: jodi.smith{at}seattlechildrens.org
| Abstract |
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Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: Using a questionnaire that was sent to North American Pediatric Renal Trials and Collaborative Studies centers, we assessed the incidence, risk factors, clinical features, and outcomes of BK virus nephropathy in pediatric renal transplant recipients who received a transplant between 2000 and 2004.
Results: BK virus nephropathy was reported in 25 (4.6%) of 542 patients at a median onset of 10.1 mo after transplantation. The median age was 11 yr. All patients who were tested reported BK viruria, and 19 (91%) of 21 who had plasma tested reported BK viremia. Treatment of BK virus nephropathy included reduction of immunosuppression (84%), cidofovir (24%), leflunomide (8%), and intravenous Ig (20%). Simultaneous rejection treatment was reported in four (16%). The median creatinine was 2.0 mg/dl at a mean follow-up of 24 mo. There were six (24%) graft failures in the patients with BK virus nephropathy at a mean of 24 mo after diagnosis. Rejection occurred in eight (32%) after diagnosis. Multivariate analysis showed that use of polyclonal induction therapy and zero HLA DR mismatch were associated with the development of BK virus nephropathy.
Conclusions: This first multicenter, retrospective, cohort study of BK virus nephropathy in pediatric renal transplant recipients found a BK virus nephropathy incidence of 4.6% and identified polyclonal induction and zero HLA DR mismatch as significant risk factors for BK virus nephropathy.
| Introduction |
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| Materials and Methods |
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For this study, a specific BKVN questionnaire was sent to 86 participating centers and included questions on diagnosis, clinical features, viral load, immunosuppression, treatment, and outcome. These centers were selected on the basis of whether they had contributed data in the years 2000 to 2004 (the period of the study).
Definitions
Cases of BKVN were defined by the center. The definition of BKVN was made by the centers on the basis of histologic diagnosis and the intention to treat as BKVN. We included cases that occurred in patients who received a transplant after January 1, 2000, to analyze patients who were on immunosuppressive medications of the current era. In addition, patients had to have at least 12 mo of follow-up to have adequate time to evaluate outcomes.
Statistical Analyses
Univariate analysis of risk factors was done using the two-tailed Fisher exact,
2, or t test, as appropriate. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify variables related to the development of BKVN. The full model included age, race, gender, transplant year, primary diagnosis, donor source, acute tubular necrosis, cold ischemia time, HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-DR, initial immunosuppression (prednisone, cyclosporin A [CsA], tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil [MMF], and sirolimus), and induction antibody therapy. A backward selection procedure was used to select the most parsimonious model for BKVN development.
| Results |
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Treatment and Outcome of BKVN
Twenty-one (84%) patients had a reduction of their immunosuppression. Specifically, 11 (53%) of 21 had their CsA/tacrolimus reduced or stopped, 18 (86%) of 21 had their MMF reduced or stopped, and five (24%) of 21 had their sirolimus reduced or stopped. Three patients had both their calcineurin inhibitor and sirolimus reduced or stopped. Cidofovir was used in six (24%) cases, leflunomide in 2 (8%), and intravenous Ig in five (20%). Four (16%) patients had simultaneous treatment of rejection.
Of the 21 patients with BK viruria, 17 were retested and 10 cleared the viruria at a median of 6 mo (range 1 to 17 mo). Of the 19 patients with BK viremia, 13 had clearance at a median of 5 mo (range 0.5 to 14 mo). The median creatinine was 2.0 mg/dl (range 0.5 to 14.6) at a mean follow-up of 24 mo. Looking at rejection, BK cases have eight (32%) documented rejections. A time-to-first rejection (after development of BKVN) analysis indicates a 1-yr rejection rate of 25.1% (±8.9) and a 2-yr rejection rate of 39.0% (±11.5).
There were six (24%) graft failures in the patients with BKVN at a mean of 24 mo after diagnosis. Two of these six graft failures were in the patients who had both their calcineurin inhibitor and sirolimus reduced or stopped. A time-to-event analysis estimates a graft survival rate (SE) of 87.8% (±6.6) at 1 yr and 69.7% (±10.8) at 2 yr after development of BKVN.
Analysis of Risk Factors
Table 1 shows the results of univariate analyses of potential risk factors for the development of BKVN. There was no significant difference in rates of BKVN when considering gender, ethnicity, age, transplant year, donor source, cause of primary disease, cold ischemia time, acute tubular necrosis, or type of maintenance immunosuppression. Induction with polyclonal antibody therapy was associated with BKVN (P = 0.0003).
Table 2 shows the univariate analysis of HLA A, B, and DR mismatch data where zero HLA-A (P = 0.0274), zero HLA-B (P = 0.0513), and zero HLA-DR mismatch (P = 0.0003) were associated with BKVN. Table 3 shows the results of a multivariate logistic regression analysis. Variables in the model included age, gender, race, donor source, HLA, era of transplant, primary diagnosis, and immunosuppression (induction and maintenance). Use of polyclonal induction therapy (odds ratio [OR] 11.04; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.94 to 41.52) and zero HLA-DR mismatch were significant predictors of BKVN (OR 7.31; 95% CI 2.58 to 20.71).
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| Discussion |
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The intensity of immunosuppression has been identified as a risk factor for the development of BKVN. No specific maintenance immunosuppressive agent is exclusively associated with BKVN development, but patients who receive the combination of tacrolimus, MMF, and prednisone have been found to be at high risk (1,16). Our study did not identify a specific maintenance immunosuppressive medication to be associated with BKVN. We did observe an association between use of polyclonal induction therapy and BKVN (OR 11.04; 95% CI 2.94 to 41.52). Polyclonal induction therapy was recently associated with an increased risk for infectious complications in pediatric renal transplant patients (17). Other studies have reported that use of antilymphocyte agents for the treatment of steroid-resistant rejection is associated with BKV replication in patients who are on tacrolimus or MMF maintenance therapy (7,18,19). However, other studies that examined BKV specifically did not find an association between use of antilymphocyte preparations and risk for BK viruria, viremia, or BKVN (7,16,18,20).
HLA mismatching has been identified as a risk factor for BKVN in both retrospective and prospective studies among adult renal transplant patients (7,19). The increased rejection risk with HLA mismatching (21,22) through its treatment with escalation of immunosuppression and/or via direct rejection-related inflammatory responses has been proposed as a potential mechanism for this association. Other studies have not identified HLA mismatching as a risk factor (4,16,23). Limited data exist on the role of HLA as a risk factor in pediatrics. In our study, we found that zero HLA-DR mismatch was associated with a 7.3-fold higher risk for BKVN. There are several potential explanations for this finding. Those with zero mismatch may represent younger donors who are BKV seronegative, a previously identified risk factor. We were not able to evaluate BKV serostatus because this test was not routinely performed at centers. Recipient age was not a significant risk factor in the univariate or multivariate analyses. Higher levels of immunosuppression would have placed those with zero HLA-DR mismatch at increased risk for BKVN. We did find that more patients with BKVN had received polyclonal induction therapy, which one could postulate may represent "overimmunosuppression" of a relatively low-risk group. In terms of maintenance immunosuppression, we found no difference in the levels of CsA, tacrolimus, or sirolimus. NAPRTCS does not routinely collect data on mycophenolic acid levels. In addition, there was no difference in the number of rejection episodes. Finally, there is evidence for increased risk for viral complications in the setting of well-HLA-matched transplants. A "dualistic" effect of HLA has been proposed with HLA compatibility reducing rejection risk but also potentially augmenting MHC-restricted cellular immune mechanisms of injury (24). In liver transplantation, HLA matching has been associated with cytomegalovirus hepatitis and the development of chronic rejection thought to be precipitated by cytomegalovirus-induced HLA antigen expression in susceptible patients (24–26).
On the basis of the evidence that BK viremia and viruria do appear before the onset of histologic BKVN, prospective screening for BKV is recommended as part of routine posttransplantation follow-up (27). Screening was performed in the majority of NAPRTCS centers with 21 (84%) of 25 centers using urine either by cytology or by PCR and 21 (84%) of 25 testing blood by PCR.
Reduction of immunosuppression is the primary mode of intervention for the treatment of BKVN (3,27,28). This approach was successful in the majority (84%) of patients in this study. Biopsy-proven rejection after immunosuppression reduction is reported in up to 25% of patients (29), which compares to 32% seen in the NAPRTCS cohort. Although there have been no controlled trials, antiviral therapy with cidofovir has been reported in cases in which immunosuppression reduction is not sufficient (13,14,30). In our study, cidofovir was used in six (24%) of 25 cases. Rates of graft loss have improved with the increased awareness and introduction of routine viral screening. More recent studies report graft loss rates between 10 and 50%. In the NAPRTCS cohort, there was a 76% graft survival at 24 mo after diagnosis.
We acknowledge the limitations of our study. The NAPRTCS database is a voluntary database; therefore, a sampling bias may be present. The retrospective nature of the study with questionnaires as the data collection method introduces the possibility of recall bias and a general underestimation of the true incidence of BKVN. However, given the restriction to cases from 2000 to 2004 and that each pediatric center typically encounters only one to two cases, we hope that this underestimation is minimal. The definition of BKVN was made by the centers themselves on the basis of histologic diagnosis and the intention to treat as BKVN. We did not define specific histologic diagnostic criteria. As such, there is a risk for misclassification of noncases as cases, and this could have an impact on the results. We do not have information on the viral surveillance strategies of the participating centers, which may have had an impact on the severity of disease at diagnosis. In addition, treatment approaches differed, which limits the interpretability of the outcome data.
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| Disclosures |
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| Acknowledgments |
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This study was presented in part at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology, November 8 through 13, 2005; Philadelphia, PA.
| Footnotes |
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Received December 4, 2006. Accepted June 20, 2007.
| References |
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This article has been cited by other articles:
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A. S. Weiss, J. Gralla, L. Chan, P. Klem, and A. C. Wiseman Aggressive Immunosuppression Minimization Reduces Graft Loss Following Diagnosis of BK Virus-Associated Nephropathy: A Comparison of Two Reduction Strategies Clin. J. Am. Soc. Nephrol., November 1, 2008; 3(6): 1812 - 1819. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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A. Z. Traum, T. Kawai, J. P. Vacanti, D. H. Sachs, A. B. Cosimi, and J. C. Madsen The Need for Tolerance in Pediatric Organ Transplantation Pediatrics, June 1, 2008; 121(6): 1258 - 1260. [Full Text] [PDF] |
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