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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 28, 2016; 22(4): 1532-1540
Published online Jan 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i4.1532
Different behaviour of BK-virus infection in liver transplant recipients
Ilaria Umbro, Francesca Tinti, Paolo Muiesan, Anna Paola Mitterhofer
Ilaria Umbro, Francesca Tinti, Paolo Muiesan, The Liver Unit, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Mindelsohn Way, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2GW, United Kingdom
Ilaria Umbro, Francesca Tinti, Anna Paola Mitterhofer, Department of Clinical Medicine, Nephrology and Dialysis B, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Author contributions: Umbro I wrote the paper; Tinti F performed the literature search; Muiesan P and Mitterhofer AP designed the research.
Supported by Italian Society of Nephrology.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Anna Paola Mitterhofer, MD, PhD, FEBTM, Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Medicine, Nephrology and Dialysis B, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale dell’Università 37, 00185 Rome, Italy. annapaola.mitter@uniroma1.it
Telephone: +39-6-49972089 Fax: +39-6-49972089
Received: May 29, 2015
Peer-review started: June 2, 2015
First decision: September 11, 2015
Revised: October 10, 2015
Accepted: November 24, 2015
Article in press: November 24, 2015
Published online: January 28, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: The prevalence of polyomavirus BK (BKV) infection among non-renal solid organ transplant recipients has been insufficiently investigated. Our review suggests that BKV viruria and/or viremia in liver transplantation is less prevalent than what has been reported in kidney or heart transplants, except when renal dysfunction is present. In general, viruric and viremic liver transplant patients have higher levels of serum creatinine. Therefore, renal dysfunction in liver transplantation may be an additional factor causing immunologic dysfunction that could make patients more susceptible to BKV infection.