Different Impacts of Hepatitis B Virus and Hepatitis C Virus on the Outcome of Kidney Transplantation

Previous studies had shown that HBV and HCV infections lead to increased morbidity and mortality after kidney transplantation when compared with the nonhepatitis group. However, few studies have compared the impact among a population with a high prevalence of HBV and HCV infections. We studied the outcomes of 346 recipients including 23 HBsAg (+) patients (6.6%; group 1), 22 patients with anti-HCV+ (6.3%, group 2), and 301 nonhepatitis patients (group 3) in a single center during a 6-year period. No patient had evidence of precirrhosis or cirrhosis before transplant. The primary end point was graft and patient survival rates. Secondary end point was the rate of progression of chronic allograft, nephropathy. The median follow-up time was 3.7 (0.5-6.8) years. Five-year actuarial graft survival was 80% for group 1, 61% for group 2, and 88 % for group 3 (P = .005). Cox regression showed HCV (hazards ratio 2.96; 95% CI = 1.03-8.51) and acute rejection episode (HR 3.01; 95%CI = 1.86-4.87) to be significant predictors of graft survival. Actuarial 5-year patient survival of group 1 was significantly lower than group 2 or group 3 (79 % vs 89% and 96%; P = .003). Cox regression revealed that the hazards ratio of HBV for death was 7.63 (95%CI = 1.88-30.86; P = .004). In contrast, HCV infection had no significant effect on patient survival (HR 1.59; 95%CI = 0.28-9.02). The rate of chronic allograft nephropathy progression was significantly faster in group 1 (-6.74 mL/min per year) and group 2 (-6.14 mL/min per year) than the controls. We concluded that HBV infection decreased patient survival earlier than HCV and that HCV decreased graft survival more significantly than HBV. Both HBV and HCV were associated with rapid progression of chronic allograft nephropathy. HBV was the strongest risk factor for mortality compared with HCV, with acute rejection episode, with diabetes mellitus, or other hazardous factors.