• E Gómez, A Laurés, J M Baltar, S Melón, B Díez, and M de Oña.
• Nephrology Service, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Oviedo, Spain.
• Transplant. Proc. 2005 Nov 1; 37 (9): 3760-3.

AbstractCytomegalovirus (CMV) infection alone or in combination with other pathogens ("pathogen burden") has been postulated as a factor producing arteriosclerosis in some solid organ transplant recipients. The aim of this study was to assess whether the patients with CMV replication and/or "herpesvirus burden" experienced a greater incidence of cardiovascular events during the first year after kidney transplantation. One hundred twenty-one consecutive transplant recipients were prospectively studied for CMV replication using antigenemia and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) weekly during the 4 first months, and monthly thereafter for 1 year. Simultaneously, nested-PCR for human herpes virus (HHV)-6 and HHV-7 were performed to yield a herpesvirus burden (as determined by seropositivity), including CMV, herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). The following additional parameters were analyzed: gender, age, smoking, duration of dialysis, preexistent diabetes, and preexistent cardiovascular events. After 1 year posttransplantation cardiovascular events, body mass index, arterial hypertension, number of antihypertensive drugs, use of ACE and/or ARBs inhibitors, diabetes, anemia, homocysteine, creatinine, cholesterol, HDLc, LDLc, PTH-i, proteinuria, and immunosuppression with cyclosporine or tacrolimus. CMV replication was present in 79 (65.3%) patients. Among 121 renal transplant recipients, 13 presented cardiovascular events, all associated with CMV replication (P = .004). Neither HHV-6 or HHV-7 replication influenced this complication. All patients with these events were seropositive for CMV, HSV, VZV, and EBV, as opposed to 64.8% without them (P = .009). Other factors that showed differences between patients with versus without events were as follows: preexistent events (76.9% vs 14.8%; P = .000), age (60 +/- 10 vs 49 +/- 14; P = .002), serum triglyceride value (191 +/- 82 vs 135 +/- 72; P = .02), and anemia (23.1% vs 5.6%; P = .05). Multiple logistic regression analysis for statistically significant variables only showed that preexistent events influenced the development of posttransplantation events (odds ratio, 27; 95% confidence interval, 4.7-154; P = .0005). In conclusion, cardiovascular events within 1 year after transplantation were more frequent among patients with CMV replication and seropositivity for other herpesviruses. An important risk factor was the presence of preexistent events.

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