Urinary shedding of BKV is increased in immunocomIn 1971, two human polyomaviruses were discovered, BK virus (BKV ) from the urine of a renal transplant promising conditions. BKV infection has been linked to occasional cases of cystitis in immunocompetent recipient (whose initials were B.K.) and JC virus (JCV ) from the brain of a patient (whose initials were J.C.) children, to glomerulonephrit...

Primary BK virus (BKV) infections acquired mainly during childhood are usually asymptomatic. Several studies revealed its seroprevalence in adult population as high as 90% worldwide. Following primary infection, virus persists as latent infection in the urogenital tract. In renal transplant recipients, primary infection and reactivations affect 10% of patients and without treatment, more than h...

B K polyomavirus has become a scourge in kidney transplantation, mediating graft loss with progressive tubular cell death and interstitial inflammation and fibrosis (1). In the setting of immunosuppression, the virus reactivates, replicating along the tubular epithelium, spreading to other uninfected tubules, entering the tubular lumen after cell lysis, and eventually entering the bloodstream t...

Several years after widespread recognition of its potential, it appears that polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) technology is finally approaching licensed application in medical diagnosis. The concept and practice of exponential in vitro amplification of target DNA sequences have profoundly affected almost all aspects of genetic analysis, and in the clinical laboratory have accelerated the trend t...

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), the first member of the arenavirus family to be isolated, is the causative agent of a zoonosis acquired from chronically viremic mice or hamsters (1). The clinical spectrum of acquired human LCMV infection ranges from inapparent and asymptomatic to, in rare instances, severely symptomatic, systemic, and fatal central nervous system (CNS) disease. Intra...

Graft versus host disease (GVHD) is a major complication in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matched allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Pharmacologic GVHD prophylaxis typically include calcineurin inhibitors, mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), methotrexate, and sirolimus. Other methods for T-cell depletion, however, these approaches could increase the risk of infections rela...