Observational Study
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World J Hepatol. Mar 27, 2022; 14(3): 602-611
Published online Mar 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i3.602
Benign course of residual inflammation at end of treatment of liver transplant recipients after sofosbuvir based therapy
Bahaaeldeen Ismail, Karim M Benrajab, Pablo Bejarano, Phillip Ruiz, Debbie Sears, Andreas Tzakis, Xaralambos Bobby Zervos
Bahaaeldeen Ismail, Karim M Benrajab, Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY 40536, United States
Pablo Bejarano, Department of Pathology, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, FL 33331, United States
Phillip Ruiz, Department of Pathology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, United States
Debbie Sears, Andreas Tzakis, Xaralambos Bobby Zervos, Department of Liver Transplant, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, FL 33331, United States
Author contributions: Zervos XB and Tzakis A designed the research; Ismail B, Sears D performed the research; Ismail B, Bejarano P, Ruiz P analyzed the data; Sears D, Benrajab KM, Ismail B, and Zervos XB wrote the paper; all authors contributed to critical revision of the manuscript, and saw and approved the final version.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by Cleveland Clinic Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors have no relevant relationships or conflict of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Karim M Benrajab, MD, Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine/Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, 770 Rose Street, MN649, Lexington, KY 40536, United States. karimbenrajab@gmail.com
Received: October 23, 2021
Peer-review started: October 23, 2021
First decision: December 2, 2021
Revised: December 16, 2021
Accepted: February 15, 2022
Article in press: February 15, 2022
Published online: March 27, 2022
Processing time: 151 Days and 23 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Unexplained residual inflammation can be seen in a subset of liver transplant recipients successfully treated with direct-acting antiviral therapies; however, it does not seem to affect graft function. An extensive clinical and histopathologic workup should still be performed to exclude other potentially treatable conditions.