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Open Access 01-12-2017 | Case report
BK polyomavirus nephropathy in two kidney transplant patients with distinct diagnostic strategies for BK virus and similar clinical outcomes: two case reports
Published in: Journal of Medical Case Reports | Issue 1/2017
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Background
BK polyomavirus-associated nephropathy is an important cause of post-transplantation renal failure. We present two cases of BK polyomavirus-associated nephropathy who were submitted to contrasting strategies of clinical follow-up to BK polyomavirus reactivation, but progressed to a similar final outcome.
Case presentation
Case 1 is a 37-year-old white man whose graft had never presented a good glomerular filtration rate function, with episodes of tacrolimus nephrotoxicity, and no urinary monitoring for BK polyomavirus; stage B BK polyomavirus-associated nephropathy was diagnosed by biopsy at 14 months post-transplant. Despite clinical treatment (dosage decrease and immunosuppressive drug change), he progressed to stage C BK polyomavirus-associated nephropathy and loss of graft function 30 months post-transplant. Case 2 is a 49-year-old mulatto man in his second renal transplantation who was submitted to cytological urinary monitoring for BK polyomavirus; he presented early, persistent, and massive urinary decoy cell shedding and concomitant tacrolimus nephrotoxicity. Even with decreasing immunosuppression, he developed BK polyomavirus-associated nephropathy 1-year post-transplant. Loss of graft function occurred 15 months post-transplant.
Conclusions
Cytological urinary monitoring was an efficient strategy for monitoring BK virus reactivation. Decoy cell shedding may be related to BK polyomavirus-associated nephropathy when extensive and persistent. The presence of associated tacrolimus nephrotoxicity may be a confounding factor for the clinical diagnosis of BK polyomavirus-associated nephropathy.