A case report of successful renal transplantation in an ABO incompatible patient with a preformed donor-specific antibody and negative CDC human leukocyte antigens crossmatch

ABO incompatibility and preformed antibodies against the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) are two impermissible barriers to a successful renal transplantation, especially in highly sensitized patient population. With the availability of effective desensitization regimens, good patient and graft outcomes have been reported. As transfusion medicine specialists we report our experience, where patient presented with dual histocompatibility barriers i.e. ABO incompatibility along with preformed donor-specific antibodies (DSA) and negative complement dependent lymphocytotoxicity (CDC) HLA crossmatch. The desensitization strategy followed for our patient included rituximab (375 mg/m2), bortezomib (1.3 mg/m2) and eleven pre-transplant therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) followed by intravenous immunoglobulin (100 mg/kg per TPE session). Anti-B titer of 1:1 and negative Luminex crossmatch (LumXm) class II DSA (less than 1000 mean fluorescence intensity; MFI), was achieved prior to renal transplantation. Fifteen months post-transplant, patient is doing well with serum creatinine level of 0.8 mg/dL with repeat LumXm class II DSA negative (891 MFI). The desensitization regimen followed proved to be effective in our case.