Endothelial Dysfunction and 6-Year Risk of Mortality in Kidney Transplant Recipients.
Transplant Direct
; 8(1): e1262, 2022 Jan.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34912949
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Endothelial dysfunction is an early and potentially reversible stage in the atherosclerotic process. We assessed endothelial dysfunction noninvasively in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) and evaluated the association with mortality and graft outcomes.METHODS:
Flow-mediated dilation (FMD) was measured in arteria brachialis by ultrasound, with baseline diameters obtained at rest and maximal diameters obtained during reactive hyperemia occurring after 5 min of forearm occlusion. FMD% is the percentage difference of flow-mediated dilation relative to baseline. Endpoints on mortality and graft outcomes were collected from The Norwegian Renal Registry. The distribution of risk according to FMD levels was assessed in Cox regression using a restricted cubic spline function. FMD was dichotomized using receiver operating characteristic analysis to identify optimal cut points at maximal sensitivity and specificity.RESULTS:
From a total of 269 KTRs in 2012, 152 (56.5%) were eligible and examined 10 wk after transplantation, and 145 had successful FMD measurements. During a mean follow-up of 6.5 y, 26 patients died, 11 lost their graft, and 34 experienced either graft loss or death. Mortality increased with lower FMD levels until about 5% dilation and did not change with further reduction in FMD% (P for nonlinearity <0.01). An optimal cut point of FMD ≤5.36% defined impaired endothelial function and FMD% below this level, was associated with fatal outcome, hazard ratio (HR), 9.80 (1.29-74.62), P = 0.03, uncensored graft loss, HR, 7.80 (1.83-33.30), P = 0.01, but an association with death-censored graft loss was lost after adjusting for pulse pressure, HR, 4.58 (0.55-37.92), P = 0.16.CONCLUSIONS:
We found that impaired FMD is strongly associated with mortality in KTRs.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Language:
En
Journal:
Transplant Direct
Year:
2022
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Norway