Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PATHOLOGY
Volume 121, Issue 1, Pages 26-31Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1309/G23CP54DAR1BCY8L
Keywords
West Nile virus; flavivirus; organ transplantation; encephalitis; immunosuppression; immunohistochemistry; pathology
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
West Nile virus (WNV), a mosquito-transmitted single-stranded RNA flavivirus, causes human disease of variable severity. We report clinical and pathologic findings of fatal encephalitis from the transmission of WNV from an organ donor to a kidney transplant recipient. The patient developed a febrile illness 18 days after transplantation, which progressed to encephalitis. Postmortem examination demonstrated extensive viral encephalopathic changes. Imnumohistochemical studies highlighted WNV antigens within neurons, especially in the cerebellum and brainstem. Flavivirus virions were detected ultrastructurally within the cerebellum, and WNV was isolated from the brain and the brainstem. Thus, this case demonstrates the first death in the first solid organ transplant-associated transmission of WNV Immunosuppression of the transplant recipient might have been responsible for the fulminant viral effects. The pathologic diagnosis helped guide subsequent epidemiologic and laboratory studies.
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