Clinical Significance of Pre-Transplant Chromosomally-Integrated HHV-6 in Liver Transplant Recipients

The reactivation of HHV-6 in transplant recipients has long been known to induce clinical complications and poor outcomes following transplantation. However, the clinical relevance of transplant patients with Chromosomally-integrated HHV-6 (ciHHV-6)—an inheritable and transmissible condition in which the HHV-6 virus is integrated into the chromosomes of every host cell—has not yet been established.

A new study  from the Mayo Clinic, lead by Infectious Disease and Transplant specialist Dr. Raymund Razonable, looked at 548 cases of liver transplantation in an attempt to determine the clinical significance of ciHHV-6 among transplant patients. While 1.3% of transplant patients were found to have ciHHV-6—a number consistent with the established prevalence of ciHHV-6 in the general population—the group found a higher rate of bacterial infection and allograft rejection in ciHHV-6 patients as compared to transplant recipients without the condition. Their data suggests that patients with ciHHV-6 may be at an increased risk of complications following transplantation.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21629177

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