Journal
TRANSPLANT INTERNATIONAL
Volume 26, Issue 3, Pages 259-266Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/tri.12023
Keywords
HCV recurrence; immunosuppression; liver transplantation; operational tolerance
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We report herein the 10-year outcome of the Tor Vergata weaning off immunosuppression protocol in hepatitis C virus (HCV) liver transplant patients. Thirty-four patients who had received a liver graft for HCV-related cirrhosis were enrolled in a prospective study in which they were progressively weaned off immunosuppression. The primary endpoints were feasibility and safety of the weaning; the second aim was to assess fibrosis progression. At the 10-year follow-up, of the eight original tolerant patients, six remained IS-free. Of the 26 individuals who could not be weaned, 22 were alive. When the baseline biopsies were compared with the 10-year biopsies, the tolerant group showed no differences in staging, whereas the nontolerant group showed a significant increase in staging. The fibrosis progression rates calculated for the tolerant and the nontolerant groups were 0.06 +/- 0.12 and 0.1 +/- 0.2, respectively (P=0.04). Furthermore, with the last taken biopsies, nine nontolerant patients were showing frank cirrhosis versus no cirrhosis among the tolerant patients. After a 10-year follow-up of a Tor Vergata weaning protocol, 6/34 patients completed follow-up without reinstitution of immunosuppression and this appeared beneficial regarding a reduction in fibrosis progression.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available