Transplantation Panel

Immunocompromised patients are particularly vulnerable to common or opportunistic viral infections. These frequently occur after solid organ or hematopoietic cell transplantation, with associated morbidity and mortality of up to 40%. Such infections may originate from the donor, be community-acquired or correspond to the reactivation of existing latent endogenous viruses of the patient. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) are among the most frequent opportunistic viral pathogens causing infections in solid organ transplant patients, together with other members of the extensive herpesvirus family such as herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and type 6 human herpes virus (HHV-6). Others, such as human herpes virus types 7 and type 8 (HHV-7, HHV-8), may cause proliferative or neoplastic diseases in these vulnerable patients.

Successful prevention and early detection of viral infections including reactivation are the cornerstones of transplant patient management. For effective pre-emptive and therapeutic treatment strategies, accurate viral load quantification is essential. Typically, in immunocompromised hosts, multiple viruses can reactivate simultaneously, which makes comprehensive identification of replicating pathogenic viruses essential. The monitoring of opportunistic viral infections in transplant patients is most frequently performed by multiple single-plex quantitative PCR assays.