[Liver diseases in patients with kidney transplants--problems and research tasks]

Patients with transplanted kidneys have a 5 times higher risk of a hepatitis-B-infection. The necessary application of immunosuppressive agents leads to the replication of core and surface particles in hepatocytes without any appearance of cell injuries. They become manifest only with the beginning of immunological processes. An analysis of 64 cases of post-mortem examination of persons who underwent a kidney transplantation shows that only 8 had no liver changes and in 24 cases liver diseases were the direct cause of death. From the up to now not yet solved problems results the necessity further to clarify the pathogenesis of liver diseases in patients who underwent a kidney transplantation by means of a combination of clinical, ultrastructural, histologic-immunohistochemica, immunological and laboratory-chemical investigations and to draw conclusions for therapy.