Impact of Cytomegalovirus Infection and Disease on Graft Loss After Pancreas Transplantation: A Single-Institution Study in Japan

Abstract

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is one of the most frequent infections after pancreas transplantation (PTx), and it is unclear whether CMV infection is associated with pancreas graft loss. A limited number of studies about the relationship between CMV infection and pancreas graft loss have been reported from Western countries, but there have been no reports from Japan. This study investigated the relationship between CMV infection and pancreas graft loss after PTx in a single Japanese institution. This study included 58 patients who underwent PTx from deceased donors from April 2000 to March 2021 in our institution. We assessed pancreas graft loss based on CMV infection and disease and investigated the causes of graft loss, the time of onset of CMV disease, and the time of graft loss for each case. The numbers of patients in the 4 categories of donor (D) and recipient (R) pretransplant anti-CMV antibody status were as follows: 4 (6.9%) in the D-/R- group, 6 (10.3%) in the D-/R+ group, 34 (58.6%) in the D+/R+ group, and 14 (24.1%) in the D+/R- group. Of the 58 patients, 74.1% and 44.1% received diagnoses of CMV infection and disease after PTx, respectively. There were no significant differences in the survival rates of pancreas graft loss stratified by CMV infection (P=.1809) or disease (P=.6241). This study suggests that CMV infection and disease had no significant influence on pancreas graft loss in this Japanese institution.