Acute Antibody-Mediated Rejection by De Novo Anti-HLA-DPß and -DPα Antibodies After Kidney Transplantation: A Case Report.

The presence of isolated de novo anti-DP antibodies is uncommon, making it difficult to determine the impact of anti-DP antibodies on graft outcome. We describe a case of acute antibody-mediated rejection mediated by de novo donor-specific anti-HLA-DP antibodies. Furthermore, the generation of non-donor-specific anti-DP antibodies (NDSAs) detected in the patient's sera was investigated. An 18-year-old woman with pretransplant 0% panel-reactive antibody received kidney transplantation from a living donor. She experienced combined acute T-cell-mediated and antibody-mediated rejection at 15 months after transplantation. High resolution HLA typing of the donor and the patient revealed that they were mismatched at both DPB1 (DPB1*31:01) and DPA1 (DPA1*02:02) loci. The single antigen bead (SAB) testing of patient's sera revealed antibodies against donor's DPB1*31:01 and DPA1*02:02 alleles. Antibodies against several non-donor-specific DP antigens were also detected. No antibodies against other HLA class I and II antigens were detected. In order to explain the reactivity pattern of NDSAs, HLAMatchmaker program was used to identify immunizing eplets shared between donor alleles and reactive beads. The analysis showed 84DEAV, a DPB1 eplet, as a shared eplet found on DPB1*31:01 (mismatched donor allele) and on DPB1-reactive alleles in SAB assay. Additionally, 50RA, a DPA1 eplet, was identified as a shared eplet found on DPA1*02:02 (mismatched donor allele) and on DPA1-reactive alleles in SAB assay. This case highlights the clinical significance of HLA-DP antibodies. Furthermore, the generation of NDSA anti-DP antibodies by epitope sharing underscores the importance of HLA-DP epitope matching in kidney transplantation.

Assessment of the Changes in Health-related Quality of Life After Kidney Transplantation in a Cohort of 232 Thai Patients.

AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate QoL of these patients before and after KT and to determine relationships between basic factors of gender, age, educational background, marital status, income, and QoL of patients after undergoing KT. METHODS: A retrospective study to determine HQoL of 232 ESRD patients who received KT in a single center in Thailand. HQoL was determined by 3 methods: WHO questionnaires, EQ5D questionnaires, and visual analog scale (VAS) questionnaires. Other important demographic information including gender, age, education, marital status, and family income were recorded. Pre- and post-KT HQoL was scored and compared. The Pearson method was used to calculate correlation statistics. RESULTS: WHO QoL is significantly improved in all domains including physical health, psychological health, social health, and environmental health after KT (P < .001). EQ5D QoL is also significantly improved after KT for the categories of self-mobility, self-care, pain, distress, anxiety, and depression. The mean score of VAS before KT was 40.98 and rose to 83.10 after KT (P < .001). Gender and marital status were not significantly correlated with quality of life. The level of education and average income of the family are positively correlated with increased QoL after KT (P < .01 and P < .001). However, age is negatively correlated with increased QoL (P < .05). CONCLUSION: Successful KT leads to a significant increase of HQoL as determined by 3 independent measurements. The improvement is shown by better physical health, psychosocial health, environmental health, and functional abilities of the transplant recipients. Our results confirm that KT should be the treatment of choice for patients with ESRD.

High incidence of bacteriuria in early post-kidney transplantation; results from a randomized controlled study.

Since the incidence of bacteriuria in kidney transplant recipients varyes according to the study, we examined it among our cases. Our post hoc analysis of data from a single-center, parallel, randomized, controlled, open label study included 90 patients who underwent kidney transplantation at our hospital from April 2010 to January 2011. Patients were randomized to early ureteric stent removal at 8 days versus routine ureteric stent removal at 15 days after kidney transplantation. We identified the incidence of and causative organism for bacteriuria in the early posttransplant period. Seventy-Four patients (58% living donors) participated in this study. The overall incidence of bacteriuria was 56.7% during the first month after kidney transplantation. In patients who had bacteriuria, 48% showed symptomatic urinary tract infection, 40% asymptomatic bacteriuria and 12% urosepsis. The most common organism was Escherichia coli (40%) follow by Klebsiella pneumoniae (19%). The incidence of an ESBL producing organism was 34%. The incidence of bacteriuria was high during the early post-kidney transplant period, requiring increased awareness and surveillance.

Impact of early ureteric stent removal and cost-benefit analysis in kidney transplant recipients: results of a randomized controlled study.

INTRODUCTION: Duration of retaining ureteric stent in kidney transplantation is still controversial. Our study aimed to compare healthcare expenditures in kidney transplant recipients with early or routine ureteric stent removal. METHODS: This study was a post hoc analysis of data from a single-center parallel randomized controlled open-label study. Ninety patients who underwent kidney transplantation at a university-based hospital in Thailand from April 2010 to January 2011 were enrolled. Patients were randomized to early ureteric stent removal (8 days) or routine ureteric stent removal (15 days) after kidney transplantation. The costs of direct health care associated with kidney transplantation, urologic complication, and urinary tract infection (UTI) within the postoperative period among the 2 groups were compared. RESULTS: Seventy-four patients (58% living donor) fulfilled the randomized criteria (early removal, n = 37; routine removal, n = 37). By intention-to-treat analysis, incidence of UTI in early stent removal was less than the routine stent removal group (15/37, 40.5% vs 27/37, 72.9%; P = .004). Urologic complication showed no significant difference between the early and routine groups (4/37 vs 2/37; P = .39). The cost-benefit analysis of early over routine stent removal was 2390 United States dollars (USD) per patient (11,182 vs 8792 USD). Presence of UTI significantly increase the hospitalization cost of 5131 USD per patient (mean cost = 12,209 vs 7078 USD; P < .001). CONCLUSION: UTI in the early post-kidney transplantation period increases healthcare cost. Early ureteric stent removal can reduce UTI and reduce hospitalization cost. This approach shows cost-benefit in the early management of kidney transplant recipients.