Transplant-associated infections: get the facts

Many transplant recipients are given immunosuppression therapy to prevent organ rejection after a transplant; this therapy can also diminish the recipients’ inflammatory response to infection, which makes them more prone to clinically significant infections [1]. Organ rejection has similar signs and symptoms to infection, and testing is often required to differentiate the two conditions [2].

Infections can involve bacterial, viral, fungal, and protozoal pathogens and there are multiple testing options [2]. Prescreening with PCR can rapidly identify many pathogens with a high degree of sensitivity and specificity [1]. Due to its accuracy, real-time PCR (qPCR) is the method of choice for the identification of pathogens associated with transplants [3].

Find out more about transplant-associated infections in this educational infographic.




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References:

1. Fishman JA. UpToDate. Infection in the solid organ transplant recipient. Published 2022 Feb 19.

2. Jani AA. Medscape. Infections After Solid Organ Transplantation. Published 2022 Mar 25.

3. Avery RK, Yen-Lieberman B. Viral Diagnostics. Principles and Practice of Transplant Infectious Diseases. 2018;841-851. Published 2018 Dec 8. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-9034-4_49