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We report four cases of West Nile virus (WNV) transmission following a single multiorgan donation in north-eastern Italy. The transmissions were promptly detected by local transplant centres. The donor had been tested for WNV by nucleic acid amplification test (NAT) prior to transplantation and was negative. There were no detected errors in the nationally implemented WNV safety protocols.

Human parvovirus B19 is considered an etiologic agent of aplastic anemia in immunosuppressed patients. Microscopic vasculitis, with or without renal involvement, has recently been attributed to this viral infection in immunocompetent patients. This study describes four cases of thrombotic renal graft microangiopathy presumably secondary to B19 infection. Twelve to 50 days after transplantation, four patients presented a renal graft dysfunction with creatinine rising to 360 to 1088 micromol/L and requiring hemodialysis in three cases. Renal involvement appeared after a systemic illness characterized by fever, fatigue and arthralgia, aplastic anemia (hemoglobin ranged from 5.3 to 7.8 g/dl), and thrombocytopenia. A thrombotic microangiopathy was observed in the renal biopsies, and the parvovirus B19 genome was isolated by PCR from the specimens. All four patients also became IgM-positive for parvovirus. Three of the four renal biopsies taken at the time of transplantation (T0) from the same patients were found positive for the B19 genome. Graft function recovered, with resolution of the aplastic anemia, within 22 to 110 d. Twenty biopsies performed as routine controls or for suspected acute rejection and nine T0 biopsies of patients with no signs of B19 infection were used. The B19 genome was found in two of 20 posttransplant biopsies and in one of nine T0 biopsies. The temporal association between aplastic anemia and the onset of thrombotic graft microangiopathy, isolation of the viral genome in renal specimens, seroconversion, and endothelial tropism of the virus suggests that B19 could be the etiologic agent of thrombotic microangiopathy in these cases. The development of the disease after infection could depend on other detrimental cofactors, which make the patient more susceptible to microthrombi formation in the renal microvasculature. The renal graft could represent the route of B19 transmission.

Photopheresis (ECP) is a new form of photochemotherapy that induces a selective inhibition of the host response to foreign histocompatibility antigens and reverses allograft rejection after organ transplantation. This report describes four adolescent patients with recurrent rejection episodes after renal transplantation, all uncontrolled using standard protocols of immunosuppression (intravenous steroids and OKT3), yet successfully treated with a 6-mo course of ECP. The ECP treatment was performed at weekly intervals during the first month, at 2-wk intervals during the second and third months, and then monthly for another 3 mo. Creatinine clearance improved throughout the treatment in three patients and remained unchanged in one. All patients had a pre-ECP biopsy with a grade 2 or 3 rejection (Banff) with a diffuse infiltrate CD8, CD14, LFA-1 (166 cells positive/0.048 mm2), and VLA-4 (51 cells positive/0.048 mm2) positive, as well as a tubular expression of HLA-DR (6.2 sections of tubule positive/0.048 mm2), ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 (3.1 and 2.9 sections of tubule positive/0.048 mm2). A strong reduction of cell infiltrate and expression of LFA-1 (6.6 cells positive/0.048 mm2). VLA-4 (0.7 cells positive/0.048 mm2), HLA-DR (0.2 section of tubules positive/0.048 mm2), ICAM-1 (0.3 section of tubules positive/0.048 mm2), and a disappearance of VCAM-1 staining were observed in the biopsies performed after 3 mo of ECP. All patients remained rejection-free during ECP, without infections or other complications commonly observed with increasing doses of standard immunosuppression. The clinical improvement allowed a progressive reduction of oral steroids in three of the four patients treated.

Our objective was to evaluate the infectious complications of the post-transplant period attributable to the persistence of catheter and other complications when chronic peritoneal dialysis (CPD) was performed post-transplantation. The design was a retrospective study, and the setting was an Italian registry of pediatric chronic peritoneal dialysis. There were 86 pediatric renal transplants (9/86 from living related donors, 2/86 simultaneous liver and kidney transplantation for oxalosis). Six of 86 transplants were lost at follow-up. Mean age of the children (n = 80) at transplantation was 9.3 years (range: 1.7-21 years). They had been on CPD for a mean period of 1.7 years (range: 0.2-4.6 years). During CPD, 67 peritonitis episodes (80% related to exit-site and/or tunnel infections) were observed, with an incidence of peritonitis of one episode per 16 months CPD. The mean safe interval of peritonitis and/or exit-site or tunnel infection was 208 days (range: 36-1897 days). The mean time of catheter removal was 80.3 days (range: 0-216 days) post-transplantation. During the first month post-transplantation, one episode of peritonitis secondary to a sepsis occurred in one child. No other episodes of peritonitis or exit-site and/or tunnel infections were observed. Two of 80 children returned to CPD (at four and at 12 months, respectively) because of persistent allograft failure. Furthermore, 12 patients were on CPD because of temporary graft failure. In all these patients the pretransplant peritoneal dialysis (PD) catheter was utilized, with no complications. These data show that the persistence of the PD catheter after kidney transplantation has produced no infections or other complications. What is more, the catheter was safely utilized during acute rejection or primary allograft nonfunction.