RETROSPECTIVE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF HEPATITIS C VIRUS INFECTION ON KIDNEY TRANSPLANT PATIENTS OVER 20 YEARS

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The majority of chronic hepatitis is ascribable to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, whereas the clinical impact has not been understood in kidney transplant recipients. Our current study was carried out to assess the impact of HCV infection on kidney recipients over the long-term, and to investigate the effect and risk of interferon-α (IFN-α) therapy for chronic active hepatitis C. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and antibody to HCV (HCVAb) were examined prospectively and retrospectively in 280 patients, who underwent kidney transplants in the period from 1973 to 1996. The patient survival rate, the graft survival rate, the incidence of liver dysfunction and the cause of mortality among the HCV infected and noninfected groups were analyzed. IFN-α therapy was performed on 10 patients with chronic active hepatitis C. Prevalence of the hepatitis virus was quite high at 34.3% (96/280): the frequency of the HBsAg carrier was 3.2% (9/280), that of the HCVAb carrier was 28.6% (80/280) and that of the both carriers was 2.5% (7/280). The other 184 cases (65.7%) were negative for both HBsAg and HCVAb. Liver dysfunction developed at the significantly higher incidence of 55% in HCVAb carriers compared to the 9.2% of the noninfected group (PP HCV infection has a significant impact on kidney transplant recipients over the long term and in particular affects them in the second decade. Our pilot study revealed only partial efficacy of IFN-α therapy for HCV-infected recipients, but with the high risk of acute rejection.