Why the study?
Does lower body mass index increase the risk of leucopenia after valganciclovir administration in cardiac transplant recipients with cytomegalovirus infection?
Does lower body mass index increase the risk of leucopenia after valganciclovir administration in cardiac transplant recipients with cytomegalovirus infection?
Lower body mass index is a significant risk factor for valganciclovir-induced leucopenia in Chinese cardiac transplant recipients treated for cytomegalovirus infection.
May warrant closer leucopenia monitoring in lower-BMI cardiac transplant patients on valganciclovir; hypothesis-generating and requires prospective validation.
BACKGROUND: Valganciclovir (VGC) has recently been proved efficacious for the prophylaxis and treatment of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in transplant recipients. Leucopenia is a troublesome complication of VGC but the possible risk factors are unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: Once a cardiac recipient's quantitative real-time CMV-polymerase chain reaction result showed positive, VGC was administered for 3 months. The 61 cardiac recipients enrolled in this study were divided into 2 groups: non-leucopenia group (n=29) and leucopenia group (n=32). The white blood cell (WBC) counts in the leucopenia group dropped approximately 55.6% in the first month after VGC therapy (pre-VGC WBC count: 5,544 cells/mm(3) vs post-VGC WBC count: 2,460 cells/mm(3), p<0.0001). The most significant difference between the 2 groups was body mass index (BMI, 23.04 vs 25.84, p=0.008), which was the impact factor of VGC-induced leucopenia. CONCLUSION: Severe leucopenia may develop after VGC therapy in Chinese cardiac recipients, especially those with lower BMI.
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Chen et al. (2007) studied this question.
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