Cytomegalovirus CMV infection poses a significant risk to kidney transplant recipients. This study investigated CMV disease incidence, outcomes, and management challenges in racial and ethnic minority populations following kidney transplantation.
The primary outcome was CMV disease incidence. Secondary outcomes included graft failure, mortality, and identification of management barriers. The cumulative incidence of CMV disease was higher in minorities than in non-Hispanic whites All graft failures 8.
Although not statistically significant, all-cause mortality was higher in the minority group Qualitative analysis revealed challenges in diagnosis, treatment-related side effects, medication costs, and insurance barriers. The providers emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and standardized protocols. While limited by the small sample size, this study highlights potential disparities in the incidence and outcomes of CMV disease among minority kidney transplant recipients, suggesting that barriers in care and access may contribute to these differences.
These hypothesis-generating findings underscore the need for larger multicenter studies to validate these patterns and to inform targeted strategies that may reduce inequities in post-transplant outcomes. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: The data collected for this project is not publicly available data, as the data contain potentially identifying or sensitive patient information. The data cannot be shared publicly because of privacy and ethical restrictions but are accessible upon approval by the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Institutional Review Board in accordance with institutional policy and the sensitive nature of the data contact via email: hsc-hrpo salud.
