Risk factors for late-onset cytomegalovirus disease in donor seropositive/recipient seronegative kidney transplant recipients who receive antiviral prophylaxis.

Background: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease occurs frequently after cessation of antiviral prophylaxis in CMV-seronegative kidney transplant recipients from seropositive donors (D+R-), and the risk factors are incompletely defined.

Method: We retrospectively assessed the incidence, clinical features, and risk factors for CMV disease in a cohort of D+R- kidney transplant recipients who received antiviral prophylaxis at a single US transplant center using descriptive statistics and Cox proportional hazards models.

Results: CMV disease developed in 29 of 113 (26%) D+R- patients at a median of 185 days (interquartile range 116-231 days) post transplant, including CMV syndrome (66%) and tissue invasive disease (34%). The incidence of CMV disease was higher in patients who underwent re-transplantation (57% vs. 24%) and this factor was independently associated with a higher risk of CMV disease in multivariable analysis (hazard ratio, 4.02; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-13; P = 0.016). Other demographic and transplant variables were not independently associated with a risk of late-onset CMV disease.

Conclusions: Despite a comprehensive analysis of patient and transplant variables, only re-transplantation was identified as a risk factor for CMV disease in D+R- kidney transplant recipients who received antiviral prophylaxis, but had limited clinical predictive value. The development of novel laboratory markers to identify patients at greatest risk for CMV disease should be a priority for future studies.