Heart Transplant Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Heart Transplant, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery, organ donation.

End-stage renal disease due to polyomavirus in a cardiac transplant patient.

Maddirala S, Pitha JV, Cowley BD, Haragsim L

Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, University of Florida Jacksonville, Shands Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL 32209, USA. supriya.maddirala@jax.ufl.edu

BACKGROUND: A 51-year-old male orthotopic cardiac transplant recipient experienced a prolonged rejection episode immediately after transplantation. Three years and 5 months after transplantation, he presented with lower extremity swelling; at this presentation, the patient's serum creatinine level was 345 micromol/l (3.9 mg/dl), his urinalysis was trace positive for both protein and blood, the urinary sediment had no casts and his 24-hour urine collection showed 750 mg protein. The patient's renal function deteriorated over the next month, with his serum creatinine level reaching a peak of 530 micromol/l (6 mg/dl). He died 4 years and 3 months after transplantation as a result of an arrhythmia. INVESTIGATIONS: Physical examination, urine and blood analyses, ultrasound-guided renal biopsy and autopsy. DIAGNOSIS: Polyomavirus-associated nephropathy with the development of end-stage renal disease. MANAGEMENT: Adjustment of immunosuppressive therapy and initiation of hemodialysis.

Published 26 June 2007 in Nat Clin Pract Nephrol, 3(7): 393-6.
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