Renal transplantation in patients with hepatitis C virus antibody. A long national experience

Background. Renal transplantation is the best therapy for patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with end-stage renal disease. Patient and graft survival are lower in the long term compared with HCV-negative patients. The current study evaluated the results of renal transplantation in Spain in a long period (1990–2002), focusing on graft failure. Methods. Data on the Spanish Chronic Allograft Nephropathy Study Group including 4304 renal transplant recipients, 587 of them with HCV antibody, were used to estimate graft and patient survival at 4 years with multivariate Cox models. Results. Among recipients alive with graft function 1 year post-transplant, the 4-year graft survival was 92.8% in the whole group; this was significantly better in HCV-negative vs HCV-positive patients (94.4% vs 89.5%, P < 0.005). Notably, HCV patients showed more acute rejection, a higher degree of proteinuria accompanied by a diminution of renal function, more graft biopsies and lesions of de novo glomerulonephritis and transplant glomerulopathy. Serum creatinine and proteinuria at 1 year, acute rejection, HCV positivity and systolic blood pressure were independent risk factors for graft loss. Patient survival was 96.3% in the whole group, showing a significant difference between HCV-negative vs HCV-positive patients (96.6% vs 94.5%, P < 0.05). Serum creatinine and diastolic blood pressure at 1 year, HCV positivity and recipient age were independent risk factors for patient death. Conclusions. Renal transplantation is an effective therapy for HCV-positive patients with good survival but inferior than results obtained in HCV-negative patients in the short term. Notably, HCV-associated renal damage appears early with proteinuria, elevated serum creatinine showing chronic allograft nephropathy, transplant glomerulopathy and, less frequently, HCV-associated de novo glomerulonephritis. We suggest that HCV infection should be recognized as a true risk factor for graft failure, and preventive measures could include pre-transplant therapy with interferon.