The prevalence of latent/chronic infection in liver transplant candidates in Taleghani Hospital of Tehran, Iran, from 2020 until 2021

The present study aimed to study the prevalence of various latent infections in pre-transplanted patients.

Due to chronic immunosuppressive therapy, patients receiving organ transplants are at risk for reactivation of various infections. Due to the complications in the course of diagnosing and treating the post-transplant infection, screening transplant recipients and donors is vital.

This retrospective cohort study was performed between March 2020 and 2021. A total of 193 patients receiving a liver transplant in Taleghani Hospital,Tehran, Iran were enrolled.

One-hundred and three (53.4%) patients were men, with an average age of 48.4 ± 13.3 years. Among viruses, 177 (91.7%) patients had a positive IgG titer for CMV. Anti-EBV IgG was positive in 169 (87.6%) patients. One-hundred and seventy-five (90.7%) patients had a positive IgG titer for the VZV. One-hundred and sixty-six (86.0%) cases had positive IgG anti-HSV antibodies. According to our findings, none of the patients were infected with HIV, but 9 (4.7%) cases and 141 (73.1%) had positive anti-HCV and anti-HAV IgG antibodies, respectively. HBV surface (HBs) antigen was also reported positive in 17 (8.8%) patients, while the HBs antibody was positive in 29 (15.0%) patients.

In our study, most of the patients had positive serology for latent viral infections such as CMV, EBV, VZV, and HSV, but the prevalence of latent tuberculosis and viral hepatitis was low among transplant candidates.