Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Mar;15(3):365-372.
doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2022.02.002. Epub 2022 Feb 19.

Clinical characteristics and outcome of coronavirus disease 2019 infection in patients with solid organ transplants: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Wen An  1 , Qiuyang Wang  2 , Tae-Eun Kim  3 , Ju-Seop Kang  4
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Clinical characteristics and outcome of coronavirus disease 2019 infection in patients with solid organ transplants: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Wen An et al. J Infect Public Health. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Although many studies have reported cases of COVID-19 infection in transplant recipients, most of them only involve a small number of patients and narrow geographic areas. This study aims to investigate the clinical characteristics, morbidity, severity, and mortality of COVID-19 infection among solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients by meta-analysis.

Method: We performed a literature search using the databases PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar as of November 26, 2020. We included randomized controlled trials and cohort studies, excluding case reports and small case series (n < 10). The pooled incidence proportion and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to estimate the combined results of forty-seven studies were included for the meta-analysis. Heterogeneity was assessed using I2. Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation was used to stabilize the specific rate variance. Publication bias was using Egger's test.

Results: The morbidity rate of COVID-19 in SOT recipients was 2.10% [95% CI 1.35-3.01], and the proportion of severe infection was 22.46% [95% CI 15.74-29.90]. The mortality rate was 17.38% [95% CI 13.72-21.34]. In the analysis by transplanted organ, the proportion of patients with severe infection was highest in recipients of two or more transplants 48.85% [95% CI 11.88-86.38]. The mortality rate was highest in lung transplant recipients 25.12% [95% CI 16.94-34.00]. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 in SOT recipients were fever (73.39%), cough (58.90%), and respiratory symptoms (45.77%).

Conclusion: SOT was a risk factor for worse COVID-19 outcomes, although the morbidity of COVID-19 in SOT recipients was not markedly higher than the general population. These results may change when our understanding of the disease progress.

Keywords: COVID-19; Meta-analysis; SOT; Solid organ transplantation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart of study selection.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The forest for morbidity(A), severity(B), and mortality(C) of SOT patients.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The forest for morbidity(A), severity(B), mortality(C), and clinical characteristics(D) of COVID-19 patients in per-organ.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. 〈https://covid19.who.int/?gclid=CjwKCAiA8Jf-BRB-EiwAWDtEGtGy30myGkh6lL-P... (accessed December 1, 2020).
    1. Carethers J.M. Insights into disparities observed with COVID-19. J Intern Med. 2020 doi: 10.1111/joim.13199. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. 〈https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker〉 (Accessed Dec 1, 2020).
    1. Mehta P., McAuley D.F., Brown M., Sanchez E., Tattersall R.S., Manson J.J. COVID-19: consider cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression. Lancet. 2020;395:1033–1034. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30628-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chan J.W., Ng C.K., Chan Y.H., Mok T.Y., Lee S., Chu S.Y., Law W.L., Lee M.P., Li P.C. Short term outcome and risk factors for adverse clinical outcomes in adults with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) Thorax. 2003;58:686–689. doi: 10.1136/thorax.58.8.686. - DOI - PMC - PubMed