Plasmapheresis as preconditioning protocol in an extremely high titer ABO incompatible renal transplant (ABOiRTx) case: A new prospect for chronic kidney disease patients in India.

The biggest hurdle in renal transplantation is the ABO blood group system. But recently ABO incompatible renal transplants have been performed using plasmapheresis (PP) as a part of the preconditioning protocol. In the present study, the objective of PP along with immunosuppression was to bring down the antibody titer of the patient to ≤ 16 during the transplant and keep it low, around 32, until post-operative 4-14 weeks. The patient (O Negative) had his mother (B Positive) as the ABO non-identical donor. The PP was performed with an apheresis equipment Com.Tec (Fresenius Kabi, Germany) to lower the anti-B antibody titer in the recipient. An Antihuman globulin (AHG) titer was performed for anti-B antibody following the departmental standard operating procedure. A total of 11 plasmapheresis procedures was performed preoperatively and four procedures were performed post-operatively to maintain the titer of the anti-B antibody at or below the desired level. The baseline anti-B antibody titer in the recipient was 512. The baseline titer came down to 8 after the end of the 11th procedure. Post-operatively we performed four plasmapheresis procedures to keep the titer at 32. During the post-operative follow up the titer has been maintained at 32 and the serum creatinine level has been maintained at approximately 1.0mg/dl and other parameters relevant to graft function were within normal limits. Our case could be the first reported case from India in which we used a plasmapheresis procedure as a part of preconditioning protocol instead of using an immunoadsorption column. Furthermore, it could be one of the few ABOiRTx cases, which has been performed at an isoagglutinin titer of 512 using plasma exchange as part of a preconditioning regime.