Kidney Transplant Clinic

Changes its BK PCR Bloodwork Routine

Galo E. Meliton, RN, C Neph (C) Chief Senior News Correspondent

We always try to improve our process in the kidney transplant clinic at St. Michael’s Hospital in order to improve patient care. To this end, the kidney transplant clinic at St. Michael’s Hospital is changing its BK PCR bloodwork routine to yearly past the five year anniversary of the kidney transplant. The old process tested yearly only up to 5 years after the kidney transplant’s second anniversary. The reason for this change is to ensure that monitoring our patient population‘s condition and status are complete throughout the life span of their kidney transplant.

BK is a virus that most of us have been exposed to as children. It was discovered in 1971 in Sudan, Africa in a kidney transplant recipient whose initials were BK, hence the name. It typically has no symptoms. It does not affect healthy people but is relevant to kidney transplant recipients as it “lives” in the urinary tract and can potentially damage the kidney transplant. If you have it, it will always be in you, and it may be “asleep” until you are immunocompromised as in being on anti - rejection or immunosuppressive medications after a kidney transplant.

Unfortunately, a number of kidney transplants were lost globally prior to this virus being discovered as kidney transplant programs worldwide unknowingly gave kidney transplant recipients more anti- rejec- tion or immunosuppressive medications to counter a suspected kidney rejection when the blood creatinine was elevated from their usual baseline readings.

Moving forward, this bloodwork is done monthly for the first three months post – transplant, then every three months up to two years (as per the previous routine), then yearly for as long as the kidney is working; it may also be done at any other time as deemed necessary (due to increased creatinine, for example).

You may continue to have this bloodwork drawn at St. Mike’s or at the outside lab you normally go to. Regardless, it is processed at the St. Michael’s Hospital Microbiology laboratory. With good team work, the Kidney Transplant Program at St. Michael’s Hospital has yet once again come up with a strategy in order to improve patient care.