Cytomegalovirus infection after kidney transplantation

1 SUMMARY Cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease is a common infectious complication in patients after solid organ transplantation. The last decade witnessed major advances in CMV disease prevention. Use of universal prophylaxis or preemptive therapy resulted in a decrease in the incidence of CMV disease from 20-60% to 5-20%. However, the efficacy of preventive approaches in terms of indirect effects of CMV occurrence is problematic. Association with allograft rejection belongs to well documented and clinically extremely important indirect effects of CMV with a prolonged adverse impact on graft survival. Potential mechanisms include overexpression of major histocompatibility complex molecules, growth factors and cytokines, and upregulation of adhesion molecules. A number of questions remain to be answered in evaluating CMV as a risk factor for acute rejection. While CMV disease is associated with an increased incidence of acute rejection, data regarding the role of asymptomatic CMV viremia are controversial. In our research we evaluated the role of CMV in pathogenesis of allograft rejection in the era of modern immunosuppression and CMV prophylaxis as well as optimal preventive strategy to minimize impact of CMV. In the first trial, renal transplant (RTx) recipients were followed prospectively for 12 months to..