BK Virus Prevalence in the Plasma of Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Awaiting Renal Transplantation

Aims: BK virus (BKV) infection in renal transplant recipients is an important problem. Although pre-transplant hemodialysis (HD) patients undergo routine screening for cytomegalovirus, herpes virus and other viruses, and post-transplantation receive antifungal, antibacterial and CMV prophylaxis, BKV infection, including viruria and viremia, has been ignored. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of plasma BKV positivity in 100 HD patients.

Study Design: Prospective observational study.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Nephrology, Hemodialysis and Transplantation, Turkiye Higher Education Hospital, and Department of Nephrology, Ankara Diskapi Yildirim Beyazit Training and Research Hospital, Nephrology Department, Turkey; between March 2014- June 2014.

Methods: The study population consisted of 41 female and 59 male (mean age: 46.1±12.3 years) HD patients from different units (median dialysis history: 60 months; range 24–132), who were awaiting renal transplantation and 25 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (10 females and 15 males; mean age: 44.6±7.8 years). The exclusion criteria for patient selection were HD patients with residual diuresis and age > 65 years. Because the absence of diuresis was among the study’s inclusion criteria, only the prevalence of BKV in plasma was determined using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Results: BKV replication was not detected in the plasma samples of either the controls or the HD patients.

Conclusions: Whether there is virological variance and changing virulence in BKV over time in pre- or post-transplant patients remains to be determined in future studies.