title: Trend of outcomes in renal transplant recipients with hepatitis B virus: a longitudinal analysis using a national database.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Manifestations of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in renal transplant (RTx) recipients tend to be worse because of the higher viral load. RTx recipients with Asian heritage have a higher HBV infection rate and have unique characteristics. To date, no large-scale study on the outcomes of Asian RTx recipients has been conducted. Furthermore, there are few longitudinal studies comparing outcomes before and after availability of anti-HBV drugs.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a nationwide, population-based study to elucidate patient survival, graft survival, and hepatic outcome (incidence of hepatoma) in Asian RTx recipients. The study includes all RTx recipients in Taiwan from 1997 to 2006. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to HBV infection status to examine the effect of antiviral drug therapy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all, 3826 RTx recipients were followed for a mean of 7.4 years, with a mean age of 43.7 years. There were no differences between the HBV and non-HBV groups in patient or graft survival rates. At 5 years after RTx, 89.2% of the patients were still alive and 84.5% RTx recipients were still dialysis free. In the era before anti-HBV drugs were available (1997-2001), patient survival in the HBV and non-HBV groups were similar (P = .614). This result can also be seen in the anti-HBV drug era, from 2002 to 2006 (P = .148). The unusual lack of a significant effect of drug anti-HBV administration on HBV-related mortality in RTx patients may be explained by the short duration of follow-up in the 2 eras. Another explanation may be the confounding effect of the different health status of RTx patients in the pre-anti-HBV drug era, when cardiovascular and infection-related mortality rates were considerably greater than HBV-related mortality rates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results demonstrate that HBV is not a contraindication for RTx. Asian recipients with HBV can still achieve a similar graft outcome and survival rate compared with those of patients without HBV.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan; Department of Life Science, Tunghai University (S.-F.T), Taiwan.
authors.forename: S-F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan.
authors.forename: K-H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.affiliation: Division of Urology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan.
authors.forename: H-C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C-Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Research, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C-H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Research, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan.
authors.forename: S-N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan; School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Science, School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taiwan; Institute of Biomedical Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan. Electronic address: wmj530@gmail.com.
authors.forename: M-J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D006085:Graft Survival; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D008137:Longitudinal Studies