Nephrol Dial Transplant (2000) 15: 1443-1445
© 2000 European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association
Human herpes virus 8 infection in kidney transplant patients in Belgium
1 Department of Medical Microbiology and Genitourinary Medicine, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK, 2 Department of Virology and 3 Department of Renal Transplantation, Cliniques Universitaires St Luc, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Background. Kaposi sarcoma (KS) may arise as a complication of kidney transplantation. In the Saint Luc Teaching Hospital in Brussels, patients of both Belgian and foreign origin are treated. The prevalence of human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) infection differs in different geographical settings. We wanted to estimate the background infection rate and the risk of infection in our transplant population: a first step towards evaluating the necessity of HHV-8 screening.
Methods. Serum samples were taken from 210 organ donors over a period of 7 years (30 per year) and from 200 kidney recipients from whom two sera were tested, one pre-transplant and the second 6–12 months post-transplant. All sera were screened for HHV-8 by an enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay using recombinant ORF 65 and ORF 73 antigens and an immunofluorescence assay for the latent antigen. Reactive samples were confirmed by western blotting.
Results. Seven donors (3.3%) were positive for HHV-8 antibodies. Of 198 pre-transplant sera available for evaluation, 15 were positive (7.6%). Post-transplantation 18/199 (9%) were positive: four (2.1% of negatives) had a documented seroconversion and one lost the antibodies. No patients developed KS.
Conclusions. A substantial number of kidney transplant patients already had antibodies to HHV-8 at the time of transplantation. A further 2.1% of seronegative patients had seroconversion, which could have been acquired through the transplanted organ (3.3% of donors were positive) or through transfusion.
Keywords: Belgium; human herpes virus type 8; Kaposi sarcoma; kidney graft
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Dr Patrick Goubau, Unité de Virologie, Ecole de Santé Publique 3055, Cliniques Universitaires St Luc, Clos Chapelle-aux-Champs, 30 B-1200 Bruxelles, Belgium.
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  M. Bergallo, C. Costa, S. Margio, F. Sidoti, D. Re, G. P. Segoloni, and R. Cavallo Human herpes virus 8 infection in kidney transplant patients from an area of northwestern Italy (Piemonte region) Nephrol. Dial. Transplant., June 1, 2007; 22(6): 1757 - 1761. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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