Hyperglycemia after renal transplantation: frequency and risk factors

Chronic renal failure is an important and common complication of diabetes mellitus; hence, renal transplantation is a frequent and the acceptable treatment in patients with diabetic nephropathy requiring renal replacement therapy. On the other hand, renal transplantation and its conventional treatment can lead to increased diabetes outbreak in normoglycemic recipients. Also, uncontrolled hyperglycemia may be increased and allograft lost thus decreasing patient survival.

We aimed to assess the frequency of hyperglycemia in transplant patients and its risk factors.

A large retrospective study was performed on 3342 adult kidney transplant recipients between 2008 and 2010. Demographic and laboratory data were gathered for each patient. All tests were done in a single laboratory and hyperglycemia was defined as a fasting plasma glucose of > 125 mg/dL. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine the risk factors of hyperglycemia following kidney transplantation.

There were 2120 (63.4%) males and 1212 (36.3%) females. Prevalence of hyperglycemia was 22.5%. By univariate linear regression, hyperglycemia was significantly higher in patients with CMV infection (P = 0.001), elevated serum creatinine (P = 0.000), low HDL (P = 0.01), and increased blood levels of cyclosporine (P = 0.000). After adjusting for covariates by multivariate logistic regression, the hyperglycemia rate was significantly higher for patients with Cyclosporine trough level > 250 (P = 0.000), serum creatinine > 1.5 (P = 0.000) and HDL < 45 (P = 0.03).

This study indicated that hyperglycemia is a common metabolic disorder in Iranian kidney transplant patients. Risk factors for hyperglycemia were higher Cyclosporine level, impaired renal function, and reduced HDL value.