Impact of a preemptive strategy after 3 months of valganciclovir cytomegalovirus prophylaxis in kidney transplant recipients.

BACKGROUND

We assessed the impact of a preemptive strategy after discontinuation of antiviral prophylaxis in the prevention of late-onset cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease in a cohort of kidney transplant recipients.

METHODS

Patients undergoing kidney transplantation at the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) between November 2003 and November 2007 were included if they were donor or recipient (D/R) seropositive for CMV. All patients received 3 months of prophylaxis with valganciclovir, followed by monitoring of CMV DNAemia by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) every 15 days during 3 additional months. Valganciclovir was restarted if CMV PCR was more than or equal to 10,000 copies/mL. The primary endpoint of the study was the incidence of late-onset CMV disease. RESULTS.: Eighty-six kidney transplant recipients were included; 30 patients were D+/R- and 56 patients were R+ for CMV. At 6 months posttransplant, CMV DNAemia had occurred in 31 of 86 (36%) patients: 13 of 30 (43%) in the D+/R- group and 18 of 56 (32%) in the R+ group (P = 0.35). In the D+/R- group, among the 13 patients with CMV DNAemia, 7 (54%) patients developed late-onset CMV disease, simultaneously to the first positive viral load (n = 5) or after detection of low-grade viremia (n = 2). Only two patients received a preemptive treatment. In the R+ group, all positive PCR results were below the established cutoff. Thus, these 18 patients were not treated, and none of them developed late-onset CMV disease (R+ vs. D+/R-: P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Within the limitations of a noncontrolled study, our data indicate that a preemptive strategy after 3 months of valganciclovir prophylaxis for CMV is not useful in R+ kidney transplant recipients. In D+/R- patients, this approach should be further evaluated.