PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - King, Rebecca L
AU  - Paessler, Michele E
AU  - Howard, Matthew T
AU  - Wertheim, Gerald B
TI  - Incidental EBV-positivity in paediatric post-transplant specimens demonstrates the need for stringent criteria for diagnosing post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders
AID  - 10.1136/jclinpath-2016-203924
DP  - 2017 Mar 01
TA  - Journal of Clinical Pathology
PG  - 270--273
VI  - 70
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/70/3/270.short
4100  - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/70/3/270.full
SO  - J Clin Pathol2017 Mar 01; 70
AB  - Aims To examine the need for minimal diagnostic criteria for post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) in children, we sought to determine the rate of incidental Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positivity in tissues from organ transplant recipients (OTR).Methods EBV in situ hybridisation (ISH) was done retrospectively on tissue from 34 paediatric autopsies of OTR and paediatric tonsillectomy specimens from non-OTR (96) and OTR (6). Patients with a history of PTLD were excluded from both data sets.Results EBV-positivity was found incidentally in 2/34 autopsy cases (5.9%). Median time from transplant to death for all patients was 12.8 months (range 0.1–153 months). Median time between transplant and death in EBV-positive cases was 34 months. EBV was positive in 26/102 tonsils (25%). Among tonsils from OTR, 4/6 (67%) were EBV-positive.Conclusions These findings reinforce the need for strict morphological and clinical criteria, other than EBV-positivity, when diagnosing PTLD in the paediatric population.