Identifying a Kidney Transplant Recipient COVID Phenotype to Aid Test Utilization in the Setting of Limited Testing Availability—Does One Exist?

The high morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 in immunocompetent patients raises significant concern for immunosuppressed kidney transplant recipients (KTRs). This level of concern, both on the part of the KTRs and transplant professionals, is heightened by a lack of prior knowledge on how Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 2 virus (SARS-CoV-2) may manifest differently in immunosuppressed patients. Characterizing how KTRs may present differently than the general population would allow for more targeted and timely evaluation and treatment of KTRs with COVID-19 infection. METHODS: Without prior knowledge of how this virus would affect our transplant center’s delivery of care to KTRs who are SARS-CoV-2 positive or patients under investigation, and in the setting of limited testing availability, we initiated a quality assurance and improvement project (QAPI) to track KTRs followed at our transplant center through the SARS-CoV-2 testing process. RESULTS: Of the 53 symptomatic patients, 20 (38%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 either on presentation to the emergency department or referral to a designated outpatient testing center. In addition, 16 (80%) of the 20 patients who tested positive required inpatient treatment. Intriguingly, patients with a history of polyoma BK viremia (BKV) had a higher incidence of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 compared to patients without a history of BKV (80% and 28%, respectively; P = .002). The Positive Predictive Value and Likelihood ratio was 80% and 6.6 for this association, respectively. Among our KTRs tested, those receiving belatacept had a lower likelihood of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. This finding approached, but did not achieve, statistical significance (P = .06).