Potential cardiovascular risk factors in paediatric renal transplant recipients

Cyclosporin (CsA) therapy is associated with side effects such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia and nephrotoxicity. Tacrolimus (Tac) has been shown to be more favourable in this respect. We retrospectively analysed office blood pressure (BP), serum total cholesterol (TC) and fasting glucose levels, and estimated graft function profiles in paediatric (n =56) and young adult (n =14) renal transplant recipients whose maintenance immunosuppressive regimen was based upon CsA (n =38) or Tac (n =32) given with mycophenolate mofetil and corticosteroids. The analysis was performed at four different time-points: at 1, 6, 12, and 24 months post-transplant, respectively. Baseline characteristics were comparable between treatment groups. Differences for both systolic and diastolic BP, and graft function between treatment groups became significant from month 1 and throughout the 2-year period. Values (mean ± SD) for CsA-treated and Tac-treated recipients at 2 years were 118.8±11.1 / 74.6±7.4 mmHg vs 109.3±11.2 / 67.2±7.8 mmHg for systolic and diastolic BP, respectively, p <0.005/0.005; and 72.0±18.5 ml/min vs 84.0±22.4 ml/min per 1.73 m2 for graft function, respectively, p <0.01. Office hypertension, defined as the use of antihypertensive medication at month 24, was significantly associated with CsA-therapy (χ2, p <0.01). TC levels became significantly lower at months 6, 12, and 24 in the Tac group compared with the CsA group. Hypercholesterolemia, defined as TC≥200 mg/dl, was significantly associated with CsA-based immunosuppressive regimen at months 6, 12, and 24 post-transplant (χ2, p <0.05, p <0.001, and p <0.01, respectively). Although Tac therapy was associated with higher glucose levels, no recipient developed post-transplant diabetes mellitus. The number of recipients who experienced acute rejections was comparable in both groups. In conclusion, Tac-based immunosuppressive therapy was found to be associated with more favourable potential risk-factor profiles for cardiovascular disease and better graft function at 2 years post-transplant compared with CsA-therapy.