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Poster Abstracts
Author(s) -
Chan, KW,
Chan, GSW
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
nephrology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1440-1797
pISSN - 1320-5358
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1797.2008.00954.x
Subject(s) - medicine , citation , kuala lumpur , library science , family medicine , computer science , marketing , business
Poster AbstractsIntroduction: BK virus is anephrotrophic polyomavirus that emerges as an
important cause of graft dysfunction and failure. The reported incidence of BK
virus nephropathy (BKvN) among transplant centers is variable. Our experience
of BKvN in a single center is presented.
Patients: Renal biopsies archived from 1990 to 2007 in Department of Pathology,
Queen Mary Hospital were searched for cases of polyomavirus nephropathy.
Selected were 9 graft biopsies from 6 patients. The first patient was from our own
hospital and the diagnosis was made in 2005. Two patients were managed in a
private hospital in Hong Kong. Biopsies from three patients were referred from a
hospital in Macau in 2007. The selected biopsies and clinical features were
reviewed. Diagnosis in 5 patients was based on virus-induced cytopathic changes
and immunohistochemistry. For one patient, diagnosis was hampered by the
negative immunoreactivity of the virus variant to a commercial antibody
(Chemicon). The diagnosis was established instead by electron microscopy and
detection of viral genome in biopsy tissue. This patient lost the graft kidney 6
months after the initial biopsy.
Discussions: Despite the ubiquity of BK virus, we have encountered our first and
only case of BKvN of our transplant center two and a half years back. The recent
emergence and apparent clustering of cases suggest that some iatrogenic predisposing
factors might be involved. The occurrence of virus variants may greatly
affects the immunohistochemical detection of viral antigens, which is currently
the most important method to diagnose BKvN