Urine cytology screening for polyoma virus infection following renal transplantation: The Oxford experience

Abstract

Objective: To review the first year of a monthly urine cytology screening service, introduced to identify renal transplant patients at risk of polyoma virus nephropathy (PVN), at an early, potentially treatable, stage. Methods and results: Monthly urine samples (n = 392) were received from 97/108 transplant recipients in 2005. Of 56 patients with follow-up >6 months, 20% and 9% had significant (>10 decoy cells/cytospin) and non-significant positive cytology, respectively. The first positive urine samples occurred most commonly in the second and third month post-transplantation and patients with significantly positive samples had higher 3-month and 6-month serum creatinine levels than patients with negative urine cytology (p