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. 2020 Jun 11;6(7):e572.
doi: 10.1097/TXD.0000000000001024. eCollection 2020 Jul.

Early Experiences With COVID-19 Testing in Transplantation

Brian J Boyarsky  1 , Allan B Massie  1   2 , Arthur D Love  1 , William A Werbel  3 , Christine M Durand  3 , Robin K Avery  3 , Kyle R Jackson  1 , Amber B Kernodle  1 , Alvin G Thomas  1 , Matthew Ronin  4 , Michelle Altrich  5 , Patricia Niles  6 , Chad Trahan  6 , Jonathan Hewlett  6 , Dorry L Segev  1   2 , Jacqueline M Garonzik-Wang  1
Affiliations

Early Experiences With COVID-19 Testing in Transplantation

Brian J Boyarsky et al. Transplant Direct. .

Abstract

Background: The early effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on transplantation are dramatic: >75% of kidney and liver programs are either suspended or operating under major restrictions. To resume transplantation, it is important to understand the prevalence of COVID-19 among transplant recipients, donors, and healthcare workers (HCWs) and its associated mortality.

Methods: To investigate this, we studied severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 diagnostic test results among patients with end-stage renal disease or kidney transplants from the Johns Hopkins Health System (n = 235), and screening test results from deceased donors from the Southwest Transplant Alliance Organ Procurement Organization (n = 27), and donors, candidates, and HCWs from the National Kidney Registry and Viracor-Eurofins (n = 253) between February 23 and April 15, 2020.

Results: We found low rates of COVID-19 among donors and HCWs (0%-1%) who were screened, higher rates of diagnostic tests among patients with end-stage renal disease or kidney transplant (17%-20%), and considerable mortality (7%-13%) among those who tested positive.

Conclusions: These findings suggest the threat of COVID-19 for the transplant population is significant and ongoing data collection and reporting is critical to inform transplant practices during and after the pandemic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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