[Mycobacterium kansasii infection after liver transplantation]. / Infección por Mycobacterium kansasii tras el trasplante hepático.

Infections are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in solid organ transplant recipients because of treatment with immunosuppressive agents. Infections due to nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are infrequent but may be a major cause of morbidity. Treatment is associated with therapeutic limitations due to drug interactions with immunosuppressive agents and enhanced toxicity. Treatment of NTM infection most commonly involves surgery, reducing the doses of immunosuppressive medications and/or therapy with antimycobacterial medications The American Thoracic Society recommends isoniazid, rifampicin, and ethambutol. The current duration for treatment of pulmonary disease caused by Mycobacterium kansasii is 18 months. We describe the case of an immunosuppressed liver transplant recipient with poor outcome due to acute cholangitis who also developed concomitant infection with an uncommon organism, M. kansasii, in the late posttransplantation period.

Review of imaging techniques in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients who require a liver transplant.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to retrospectively compare the diagnostic performance of ultrasound (US), contrast-enhanced multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) and contrast-enhanced MRI in cirrhotic patients who were candidates for liver transplantation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 273 consecutive patients with 218 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) nodules, who underwent imaging and subsequent transplantation, were examined. Diagnosis of HCC was based on explant correlation of the whole liver. Three different imaging data sets were evaluated: US, MDCT and MRI unenhanced and dynamic phases. Diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value, with corresponding 95% confidence intervals, were determined. Statistical analysis was performed for all lesions and for two lesion subgroups (≤2 and >2 cm). Preoperative tumour staging was analysed. RESULTS: Patient sensitivity to US, MDCT and MRI was 80.4, 81.1 and 90.5%, respectively. Specificity was 96.3, 96.2 and 82.1%. Combined US and MDCT improved sensitivity (88%) without significant loss in specificity (95.7%). Imaging tests resulted in accurate tumour staging in 83.4% of the patients. In per-nodule analysis, technique sensitivity was 55.6, 52.4 and 65.9%, respectively. Sensitivity figures improved when the nodule was larger than 2 cm. CONCLUSION: Combining imaging techniques is a good strategy for pretransplant HCC diagnosis and provides more accurate cancer staging in patients, which is necessary to decide the correct therapeutic approach.