Clinical events and healthcare resource utilization associated with neutropenia and leukopenia among adult kidney transplant recipients receiving valganciclovir

doi:10.5500/wjt.v15.i2.102671

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World Journal of Transplantation

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2220-3230

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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA

Observational Study

World J Transplant. Jun 18, 2025; 15(2): 102671
Published online Jun 18, 2025. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v15.i2.102671

Clinical events and healthcare resource utilization associated with neutropenia and leukopenia among adult kidney transplant recipients receiving valganciclovir

Andrew P Beyer, Pamela A Moise, Michael Wong, Wei Gao, Cheryl Xiang, Pangsibo Shen, Martha Pavlakis, Flavio Vincenti, Weijia Wang

Andrew P Beyer, Weijia Wang, Department of Value and Implementation Outcomes Research, Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ 07065, United States

Pamela A Moise, Medical Affairs, Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ 07065, United States

Michael Wong, Scientific Affairs, Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ 07065, United States

Wei Gao, Cheryl Xiang, Pangsibo Shen, Analysis Group, Boston, MA 02199, United States

Martha Pavlakis, The Transplant Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02215, United States

Flavio Vincenti, The Transplant Services, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States

Author contributions: Xiang C was responsible for data collection; Wang W, Beyer AP, Gao W, Xiang C, Shen P were responsible for analysis and interpretation of results; Wang W, Pavlakis M, Vincenti F, Beyer AP, Moise PA, Wong M, Gao W, Xiang C, Shen P were responsible for draft manuscript preparation; all authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Institutional review board statement: This research utilizes curated de-identified data. As such, this study is exempt from Institutional Review Board (IRB) review.

Informed consent statement: This research utilizes curated de-identified data. As such, informed consent is not required.

Conflict-of-interest statement: Beyer AP, Moise PA, Wong M, Wang W are employees of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, United States and own stock/options in Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, United States. Gao W, Xiang C, Shen P are employees of Analysis Group, Inc., which has received consulting fees from Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, United States for the conduct of this study. Vincenti F received research grants and consulting honoraria from Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA. Pavlakis M received research grants and consulting honoraria from Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, United States, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Transplant Genomics, Inc., and Memo Therapeutics AG.

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.

Data sharing statement: sharing statement: No additional data are available.

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: Weijia Wang, Department of Value and Implementation Outcomes Research, Merck & Co., Inc., 126 E Lincoln Ave, Rahway, NJ 07065, United States. weijia.wang@merck.com

Received: October 25, 2024
Revised: December 9, 2024
Accepted: January 23, 2025
Published online: June 18, 2025
Processing time: 119 Days and 14.7 Hours

Core Tip

Core Tip: This observational study examined the impact of neutropenia and leukopenia up to 5 years in kidney transplant recipients who received valganciclovir or ganciclovir as cytomegalovirus (CMV) prophylaxis. The results showed that neutropenia and/or leukopenia were associated with increased risks of CMV-related events, opportunistic infections, hospitalizations, and use of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. Additionally, patients with neutropenia and/or leukopenia had higher healthcare resource utilization, including more inpatient admissions, outpatient visits, and labs. These findings highlight the need for alternative prophylactic treatments for CMV with fewer myelosuppressive effects to improve outcomes in kidney transplant recipients.