TransplantNow The Ultimate Guide to Clinical Transplant Research

Post-transplant, there is no ideal measure of predicting how immunosuppressed an individual recipient is. Fernandez-Ruiz et al. assessed complement (C3 and C4) levels at 0,1,6 months post-kidney transplant in 270 patients. Those with C3 hypocomplementemia at month 1 had greater incidences of overall infection, bacterial infection and fungal infection up to month 6 post-transplant. This […]

BK nephropathy is an important cause of graft failure. Similar to other viruses, it is possible that BK donor and recipient serology screening could be used to risk stratify patients. Sood et al. performed BK serology on 192 adult and 11 pediatric donor and recipient pairs. Recipients also underwent BK surveillance. They divided patients into […]

Aspergillus colonization is common after lung transplantation. Size of conidia may be important for the virulence of Aspergillus species. Weigt et al. performed a retrospective review of 780 lung transplant patients from two U.S. centers. Patients colonized with small conidia Aspergillus (but not large conidia species) had a significantly greater risk for developing bronchiolitis obliterans […]

This supplement to the American Journal of Transplantation is dedicated to transplant infectious diseases. The articles in the supplement are guidelines for various pathogens and infectious syndromes that affect transplant recipients. This is the 3rd edition of the guidelines and updates the previous edition published in 2009. Three new chapters were added to this edition: […]

EBV viremia occurs frequently after transplantation and can be related to post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD). However, the consequences of the majority of viremia are unclear. Barnoulid et al. followed EBV viral loads in 383 kidney transplant patients during the first year post-transplant. 40% of patients had at least one detected viremia; viremia was more common […]

BK nephropathy is an important cause of graft loss and the majority of kidney transplant centers perform plasma BK virus screening. The purpose of screening is to detect virus early so that pre-emptive measures such as reduction of immunosuppression can be employed, thereby preventing progression to nephropathy. Knight et al. reviewed 369 kidney transplant recipients […]

In both HSCT and SOT (especially lung transplants), RSV infections carry a high risk of morbidity and mortality. Ribavirin has been used for the treatment of RSV; however, it is unclear whether ribavirin is best given orally, intravenously, or by aerosolization. Aerosolized ribavirin is teratogenic and requires administration in a negative pressure room. Therefore, many […]

Influenza vaccine is recommended for transplant recipients annually. There are several types of influenza vaccines on the market now including standard intramuscular, adjuvanted intramuscular and intradermal. An advantage of giving flu vaccine intradermally is to take advantage of the abundant Langerhans/dendritic cells at the site that act as potent antigen presenting cells. Baluch et al. […]

Transmission of infection from donor to recipient is an an inherent risk in transplantation that can likely never be completely eliminated. This is true even in living donation, where transmission of hepatitis C and HIV has been reported. This paper reports the results of a conference on this topic. Most significant is the fact that […]

Strongyloides is an intestinal nematode that is endemic in tropical areas. Most infected persons are asymptomatic. However, in immunocompromised, the infection can become disseminated and fatal. Infected organ donors can transmit Strongyloides to recipients and this has been described in the past. This report describes three organ recipients who were diagnosed with Strongyloides. Serum from […]