Risk Factors for Chronic Renal Insufficiency Following Cardiac Transplantation

Although previous publications have discussed kidney disease in nonrenal solid-organ transplantation, none has reviewed thoroughly the potential predictors of long-term renal impairment in cardiac recipients. Thus, the purpose of this review article is to summarize the current state of knowledge on risk factors of chronic renal insufficiency in heart transplant patients. An English language Medline literature search (1946-April 2014) was conducted using the search terms renal insufficiency, kidney failure, kidney diseases, nephrotoxi$ ($ for truncation), creatinine, glomerular filtration rate, heart transplantation and organ transplantation. Additional references were identified from a review of literature citations. A total of 74 articles discussing key risk factors were included in the manuscript.         The existing literature reveals that several recipient characteristics (age, female sex, pretransplant/early post-transplant kidney impairment, diabetes, and hypertension) increase the risk of renal insufficiency after transplantation. Current data also indicate that, while cyclosporine and tacrolimus are most likely major determinants of post-transplant kidney failure, the effects of calcineurin inhibitor doses and concentrations remain unclear. A small number of studies suggest that tacrolimus could possibly induce less nephrotoxicity than cyclosporine, but meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials show the opposite with comparable incidences of dialysis after cardiac transplantation. Finally, the role of genetic variations has only been explored to a limited extent in heart transplant patients. This growing body of evidence should ultimately lead to a better risk prediction regarding chronic renal insufficiency following cardiac transplantation and a more personalized tailoring of immunosuppressive regimens.