Impact of obesity on development of chronic renal allograft dysfunction

Obesity in nontransplant patients has been associated with hypertension, hyperlipi-demia, diabetes, and proteinuria. To determine whether renal transplant recipients with an elevated BMI have worse long term graft survival, we prospectively studied 92 patients transplanted between April 1999 and July 2000. Weight (Wt) and height of the patients were recorded prior to transplantation and two weeks, one, two and three years post transplantation. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr) and blood pressure were checked monthly, while triglyceride, cholesterol, high den-sity lipoprotein (HDL), and low density lipoprotein (LDL) were obtained 3 monthly for 3 years post transplantation. Graft dysfunction was defined as serum Cr > 1.8 mg/dL. While BMI and Wt of the patients before transplantation did not show any significant correlation with chronic renal allograft dysfunction (CRAD), patients with higher Wt and BMI two weeks after transplantation showed an increased risk of developing CRAD during the three year post transplant independent of other risk factors (P< 0.05). Patients with greater Wt loss in the first two weeks post transplantation showed a decreased risk of developing CRAD in the following 3 years (P< 0.001). Our study suggests that high Wt and BMI are significantly associated with worse graft survival 3 years post renal trans-plantation.