Diffuse parenchymal form of malakoplakia in renal transplant recipient: a case report.

Malakoplakia is an unusual chronic inflammatory disease related to prior urinary tract infection. It is characterized by the presence of macrophages with foamy cytoplasm exhibiting larger PAS positive inclusions that stain for calcium and iron. Malakoplakia affects renal allograft and is associated with severe morbidity. Herein, the authors report a new case of renal graft malakoplakia in a 23-year-old female patient. The patient received a living-related donor renal transplantation with a high immunological risk. Plasmapheresis and intravenous immunoglobulin (i.v. Ig) treatment, pre- and post-transplant, and induction with rabbit anti-thymocyte globulins were used due to presence of donor specific antibodies and positive B cross match by flow cytometry. The patient had an early urinary tract infection with a good outcome. On Day 36 post-transplant (PO), the patient returned to the clinic with fever, graft pain and acute renal dysfunction leading to hemodialysis. Escherichia coli (E. coli) was present in the blood and urine culture. At the time, the renal biopsy revealed numerous sheets of macrophages with foamy, eosinophilic cytoplasm showing several PAS positive granules and large inclusions that stained strongly with hematoxylin, calcium (von Kossa method) and iron (Prussian blue). The patient was diagnosed with malakoplakia related to a kidney transplant. Despite prolonged treatment with antibiotics, determined by a susceptibility test, the patient did not recover renal function and remained on dialysis.

Renal transplants using expanded cadaver donor criteria.

AIMS: to analyze the frequency of transplants using expanded donor criteria (EDC) and the incidence of delayed graft function, acute rejection and the patient and graft survival compared to ideal donors (ID). PATIENTS: retrospective analysis of the 582 cadaver renal transplants performed from Jun 1988 to Mar 2003 in adult recipients. The expanded donor criteria were considered as history of hypertension or evidence of atherosclerosis, diabetes, age less than 5 or more than 55 years old, serum creatinine higher than 2.0 mg/dL, shock and retrieval in cardiac arrest. The statistical analysis used was Student t test, Chi-square test, and Kaplan-Meier method as indicated. RESULTS: 25.4% of our transplants used expanded criteria donor. Comparing, respectively, the EDC and ID we found: the incidence of delayed graft function of 63.9% vs 50.4% (P: 0.007); incidence of acute rejection of 66.1% vs 72.3% (P: 0.203). The patient survival at 1 and 5 years was 87% vs 92% and 81% vs 79%, respectively (P: 0.6809). The graft survival at 1 and 5 year was 74% vs 82% and 57% vs 59% (P: 0.2072), respectively for EDC and ID. CONCLUSIONS: One fourth of our cadaver transplants fulfilled the extended donor criteria. The incidence of delayed graft function was higher in these transplants, but the prevalence of rejection episodes was similar to ideal donors. The patient and graft survival were not statistically different at 1 and 5 year.

Twenty-five year experience with renal transplantation at Santa Casa Hospital, Porto Alegre.

From 1977 to July 2002, 1,376 renal transplants were performed at Santa Casa of Porto Alegre. The number of transplants and the patient and graft survival rates have been rising each year since 1987. The overall one-year graft survival rates were 90% for living donor recipients and 80% for cadaver donor recipients, respectively; however, the patient and graft survival rates increased significantly between the early (1977-1995) and more recent (1996-2002) periods. Pediatric patients (less than 18 years old) accounted for 15.8% of the transplants that were performed, most of them from living related donors. The patient and graft survival rates did not differ statistically when we compared recipients of transplants from "ideal" and marginal cadaver donors, even when we considered only those risk factors that affected graft function in assigning a marginal donor. During the 25-year observation period, 537 grafts have been lost (39%), including those patients who died with functioning graft. We are currently following 834 patients with a functioning graft, with an average follow-up of 67+54 months.