Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in kidney transplant recipients is a subject of much debate and became of interest to nephrologists amidst the pandemic. The main concerns are the influence of the chronic use of immunosuppressive drugs, the viral-related risk of acute rejection, and the long-term outcome of allograft function. This single-center prospective study included kidney transplant recipients with COVID-19 infection. Patients were maintained on immunosuppressive regimens. The severity of disease was defined as oxygen saturation < 94%, the need for hospitalization and/or hemodialysis, the occurrence of acute kidney injury (AKI), and mortality. Seventeen patients (54.8%) required hospital admission, four patients needed hemodialysis (12.9%), twelve patients (38.7%) had AKI, and three patients died (9.7%). Oxygen saturation < 94% showed a positive correlation with the presence of diabetes (p value 0.031) and a negative correlation with the maintenance steroid dose ( p value 0.046). A negative correlation existed between the need for hemodialysis and average Cyclosporin level ( p value 0.019) and between the need for hospitalization and average Tacrolimus level ( p value 0.046). Severity of disease was associated with the presence of lymphopenia ( p value 0.042), the cumulative steroid dose ( p value 0.001), increased serum levels of LDH ( p value 0.010), Ferritin ( p value 0.020), AST ( p value 0.047), and ALT ( p value 0.006) and D-dimer levels more than 0.5 mg/L ( p value 0.038). This study highlighted that the immunocompromised state of renal transplant recipients may not be regarded as a disadvantage in the setting of COVID-19 infection. Studies on a larger scale are needed to validate these results.
【저자키워드】 Medical research, Nephrology,