Comparative study of COVID-19 infection in renal transplant recipients
and non transplant recipients
Abstract
To analyse the difference in COVID-19 infection between kidney
transplant patients and non-transplant patients. We included
post-transplant patients with COVID-19 infection who attended Shenzhen
No. 3 Hospital from December 2022 to February 2023, and enrolled the
general population with COVID-19 infection who were hospitalized during
the same period, matched by age and gender. They were divided into
Kidney Transplant Recipients group (KTR) (n=194) and Non-Kidney
Transplant Recipients Group(NKTR)(n=516) and the basic information,
clinical symptoms, laboratory data, treatments and outcomes of these two
groups were compared. The proportion of the renal transplant population
classified as severe and critical was 15.5%, which was significantly
higher than that in NKTR group (P < 0.05); the proportion of
patients with pneumonia was also significantly higher than that in NKTR
group. The mean maximum fever temperature was slightly higher in the
NKTR( P<0.001);Kidney transplant population having
lower absolute lymphocyte counts on admission and 7 days after admission
than the general population, with statistically significant
differences( P<0.001, P<0.001). The use of
intravenous hormones was significantly higher (42.8% vs. 6.0%,
p=0.000), as was the use of small molecules such as Azvudine and
Paxlovid, compared to the general population. A total of 10 patients in
the included population required ICU admission, all in the KTR group;
six patients experienced death, also in the renal transplant group.
Conclusion: Post-transplant COVID-19 infections are more severe and
require hormonal and small molecule antiviral therapy, and the prognosis
is worse than in the general population.