The adverse impact of cytomegalovirus infection on clinical outcome in cyclosporine-prednisone treated renal allograft recipients.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection was diagnosed in 28% (n = 144) of 516 renal allograft recipients treated with cyclosporine-prednisone (CsA-Pred) immunosuppressive therapy. The majority of infections produced either asymptomatic (n = 37) or mild-to-moderate (n = 75) clinical disease, while 10% were lethal (n = 14). Transplantation from a seropositive donor to a seronegative recipient was associated with an increased incidence of (CMV) infection but did not predispose to more severe clinical disease. Similarly, donor source (cadaver [CAD] vs. living-related donor [LRD]), age greater than or equal to 45 years, and antecedent pulse steroid therapy for the treatment of acute rejection were not correlated with clinically more severe disease. An increase in serum creatinine to greater than or equal to 25% of preinfection nadir values occurred in association with CMV infection in 106 patients, returning to nadir values or below in 74.5% of these individuals. CMV infection did not impact on actual patient survival among recipients of LRD or CAD allografts or on actual 1-year HLA-haploidentical or HLA-identical LRD graft survival. In contrast, actual 1-year cadaveric graft survival was significantly lower among CMV-infected (n = 95) vs. uninfected (n = 198) patients (75.8% vs. 87.8%, P = .01). In association with the finding of reduced actual 1-year CAD graft survival, CMV-infected patients were found to be more predisposed to develop acute rejection episodes. Of the CMV-infected CAD graft recipients, 48.4% developed greater than or equal to 1 acute rejection episode during the first year following transplantation vs. 25.3% of their uninfected counterparts (P less than .001). The impact of CMV infection in CsA-Pred treated renal transplant recipients does not differ substantially from that reported historically in association with prednisone-azathioprine immunosuppressive therapy.