Impact Of HCV Infection On Rejection And Survival Of Cadaveric Renal Transplantation Recipents

BACKGROUND: Controversy still persists regarding the impact of HCV infection on renal transplant recipients. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of anti-HCV antibody status on patients and grafts of renal transplants at our center. METHODS: We examined 495 cadaveric renal transplants performed between July 1992 and Dec 2003 at our hospital, including 47 patients with anti-HCV antibody positive (HCV+ group) and 448 patients with anti-HCV antibody negative, took 47 patients as HCV- group. Acute and chronic rejection and causes of graft failure and patient death were analyzed. Patient and graft cumulative survival were compared between HCV+ and HCV- groups with K-M curve.RESULTS: Overall cumulative patient survival was 94.58, 88.14 and 73.17% at 1, 3, and 5 yr, respectively, in the HCV-group, compared with 86.08, 70.21 and 54.29% at 1, 3 and 5 yr, respectively, in the HCV+ group (p<0.01). The major cause of patient death in both groups was infection with 21.28% in HCV+ group and 10.64% in HCV-group. Cumulative graft survival in the HCV+ group revealed 81.99, 70.21 and 45.48% at 1, 3 and 5 yr, respectively, compared with 94.58, 79.46 and 62.77% at 1, 3 and 5 yr, respectively, in the HCV- group (p<0.001). The major cause of graft failure was chronic allograft dysfunction (56.82%) in HCV+ group, and patient death (32.43%) in the HCV- group.CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed that patients with anti-HCV antibody had higher incidence of acute and chronic rejection and allograft dysfunction. Graft survival tended lower in the very long time. Patients without anti-HCV antibodies had better patient survival when compared with patients with HCV antibodies up to...