Abstract

Chronic hepatitis C patients in need of a lung transplant are often considered ineligible due to their infection.To assess the association of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with long-term outcomes of lung transplants.From the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (1995-2011), we selected all adults with and without HCV infection who underwent lung transplantation.A total of 17 762 lung transplant recipients were included (55.5% bilateral). Of those, 319 (1.83%) had positive HCV serology. The HCV-positive recipients were 1.6 years younger, less Caucasian and more African-American, and had a significantly higher rate of co-infection with hepatitis B virus (all P < 0.001). Post-transplant patients were discharged alive at similar rates regardless of HCV status: 88.4% in HCV+ vs. 90.3% in HCV- (P = 0.25). The mortality rates were also similar at 1 and 2 years after transplantation (20.7% in HCV+ vs. 19.2% in HCV- and 31.6% in HCV+ vs. 28.9% in HCV-, respectively; both P > 0.05), but at post-transplant year 3 year, mortality rate in HCV+ became significantly higher (42.5% vs. 36.4%, P = 0.04) and remained higher for the duration of the follow-up (mean 9.1 years, max 18.4 years). In multivariate survival analysis, after adjustment for confounders, being HCV+ was associated with higher mortality: adjusted hazard ratio 1.24 (1.04-1.46), P = 0.01. No association of HCV infection with time to graft loss was found (P = 0.92).Chronic HCV infection is associated with a moderate increase in post-lung transplant mortality. Treatment of HCV in lung transplant recipients may, therefore, result in improvement of post-transplant outcomes.

View details for DOI 10.1111/apt.13693

View details for PubMedID 27279496