Objective: The purpose of the present, prospective, cohort study was to monitor urine cytology samples from recipients of renal transplants to search for the occurrence of decoy cells and degenerated inclusion-bearing cells with an aim to correlate the existence of these cells with molecular detection of polyomavirus BK (BKV) DNA in urine.
Material and methods: This study included patients who underwent renal transplantation. Patients had their urine tested quarterly, during the first year post-transplantation, for the presence of decoy cells and degenerated cells, as well as by quantitative determination of BKV load in the urine and plasma.
Results: Three hundred and sixty-one examinations were performed on 101 patients within 12 months of attendance. Urine cytology results were: 198 (54.9%) negative and 60 (16.6%) positive for the presence of viral cytopathic effects depending on the presence of BKV infection, 72 (19.9%) positive for the manifestation of degenerated cells and 31 (8.6%) unsatisfactory for analysis. There was a subtle tendency towards the presence of degenerated inclusion-bearing cells in cases in which the virus was detected in voided urine. However, the presence of degenerated cells exhibited a tendency to BKV positivity in months 3, 6 and 9 and, exclusively in month 12, this trend was statistically significant.
Conclusions: There were not enough strong morphological and staining elements to state the origin of the degenerated cells or to describe the nature of the infection (viral or bacterial), given that these cells were undergoing an apoptotic process in post renal transplant patients.
Keywords: BKV; degenerated cells; polyomavirus; renal transplantation; urine.
© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.