Monitoring of EBV-DNAemia by quantitative real-time PCR after adult liver transplantation.

Background: Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) causes significant morbidity and mortality in transplantation. The clinical significance of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in the development of PTLD is clear, but not all EBV-reactivations cause PTLD.

Objectives: We retrospectively analyzed EBV-DNAemia in liver transplant patients by a quantitative TaqMan-based real-time plasma PCR.

Study Design: Altogether 1284 specimens, obtained from 105 patients for frequent monitoring of cytomegalovirus (CMV) and human herpesvirus-6 and -7 (HHV-6, HHV-7) during the post-transplant year, were retrospectively tested for EBV-DNA.

Results: Altogether, 14/105 (13%) patients showed EBV-DNAemia, which usually occurred within 3 months after transplantation and subsided within a few weeks. EBV-DNAemia occurred concurrently with CMV in 10/14, with HHV-6 in 11/14, and with all three betaherpesviruses in 4/14 cases. The peak viral loads were relatively low (median 2100 EBV-DNA copies/ml, range 568-6600), except in one patient who first had low-level EBV-DNA (562-3022 copies/ml) in the early post-transplant period, but on day 175 after transplantation developed high-level DNAemia (9851-86,975copies/ml) which continued for 6 months and developed into PTLD at 6 months after transplantation.

Conclusion: Low-level EBV-DNAemia is common after liver transplantation, often occurring together with betaherpesviruses, but seldom leads to high viral loads or PTLD. However, monitoring of EBV-DNA levels in the patients can be useful.