Hypertension in renal transplantation: saudi arabian experience

To evaluate the prevalence, etiologic factors and therapy of hypertension in actively followed up transplant population in Saudi Arabia; we retrospectively reviewed the records of the active renal transplant patients at two large transplant centers in Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. These subjects were transplanted between January 1979 and November 1998. The patients were grouped according to the measurement of blood pressure; group 1 (considered normo-tensive): blood pressure below 140/90 mmHg, group2: blood pressure between 140-159/90-99, group 3: blood pressure 160-179/100-109 group 4: equal to or above 180/110. There were 1115 patients' records included in the study. The mean duration of transplantation was 66.9 +/- 50.1 months. According to the level of measured blood pressure, there were 641 (57.5%) patients in the normotensive group (group 1), 404 (36.3%) patients in the mildly hypertensive group (group 2) 64 (5.7%) patients in the moderately severe hypertension group (group 3) and only six (0.5%) patients in the severe hypertension group (group 4). The estimated prevalence of hypertension in this study was almost 85%. We found no significant difference in the prevalence of hypertension in terms of gender, year of transplantation, duration of transplantation, type of donor, number of previous transplants, diagnosis of renal artery stenosis, etiology of kidney disease, diagnosis of diabetes after transplantation, diagnosis of cerebrovascular accidents, or mean dose of prednisolone and cyclosporine. There was a statistically significant association between increased level of blood pressure and old age (above 50 years), original disease associated with hypertension, history of hypertension on dialysis, acute rejection (once or more), presence of protienuria (more than 0.3 mg/day), abnormality of ECG, or serum creatinine above 300 micromol/L. We conclude that hypertension is highly prevalent in the renal transplant population in Saudi Arabia. Risk factors for the development of hypertension or its complication should be more aggressively approached in order to protect the patients and their grafts alike.