Metabolic syndrome after renal transplantation: a prominent risk factor for graft failure
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Studies have shown that metabolic syndrome is a common problem among renal transplant recipients. The study, involving 112 renal transplant patients, was aimed at investigating whether metabolic syndrome defined by NCEP ATP III criteria had an impact on long-term graft function. At 1 year post-transplant, 28.6% of patients had metabolic syndrome compared to 10.7% prior to transplantation. During a mean follow-up period of 69.9 months, graft failure occurred in 27.7% of the patients, and metabolic syndrome was significantly more frequent in graft failure patients than in patients displaying stable renal function (51.6% vs 19.8%; P=0.002). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that patients with metabolic syndrome showed an increased risk for graft failure at 1 year post-transplant. Besides metabolic syndrome, older donor age and proteinuria level were other independent risk factors for graft failure. In conclusion, metabolic syndrome appears to be a prominent risk factor for renal graft failure. Since metabolic syndrome is a cluster of modifiable risk factors, early identification of patients at risk and prompt intervention may have a potential to improve graft survival if this association proves causative.
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