Serodiagnosis of Human Herpesvirus-8 in Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Single- Centre Study from Iraq

Background: Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), also known as Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus has attract more attention because it is linked to the development of all clinic-epidemiological forms of Kaposi’s sarcoma. Number of studies showed that solid organ transplantation play an important role in HHV-8 transmission and the immune status is also a crucial factor for the development of KS so that kidney transplantation is an important source for HHV-8 infection to be investigated .Aim of the study: This study aimed to investigate the presence of antibodies (IgG, IgM) against HHV-8 in patients underwent kidney transplantation within 6 month weather the patients symptomatic or not. Subjects, materials and methods: A case-control study of 80 participants, 40 apparently healthy persons as control group and 40 patients undergo kidney transplantation within 6 month whether receiving immunosuppressive therapy or not but not using any antiviral drugs in Ghazi AL-Hariri Hospital For Surgical Specialties / Detection of HHV-8 (IgG, IgM) antibodies done by ELISA on previously stored sera in Baghdad medical laboratories.Results: a significant association was found between kidney transplantation and IgG antibodies against HHV-8 with a P-value of 0.023. An association was found between HHV8-IgG positivity and IgM status (p = 0.03). 3 (75%) of HHV8-IgM positive cases exhibited HH8-IgG positivity. Regarding sex distribution in both IgM, and IgG positive patients with renal transplantation. Males represented the majority of the cases in both condition.Conclusion: Patient with Kidney transplantation at risk for the of HHV-8 infection that may carry high threat for post-transplant complications