Effect of Long-Term, Low-Dose Aspirin Therapy on Renal Graft Function

Despite improvements in immunosuppressive protocols for renal transplant, long-term success of renal transplant is still limited by the occurrence of interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy. Some studies have shown that aspirin decreases the severity of kidney ischemia-reperfusion injury and the development of tubular atrophy in animal models. This study aimed to assess the effects of aspirin therapy started at the time of transplant on long-term graft function.

We compared renal graft function of 82 patients on low-dose aspirin 75 mg once daily who underwent renal transplant between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2010 from a single center with 65 patients not taking aspirin. For each patient, the following measurements were collected: age, sex, creatinine level, type of donor, cold ischemia time, occurrence of acute allograft rejections, number of HLA mismatches, first transplant, intake of statins, number of antihypertensive medications, and number of days posttransplant. Patients were excluded from the study who were on aspirin before transplant or who had coronary artery disease.

Multilevel modelling was used to compare renal allograft function, as measured by serum creatinine levels, between patients taking and not taking aspirin after kidney transplant. Aspirin was not significantly associated with creatinine levels (P = .59) after adjusting for other relevant variables.

Low-dose aspirin started at the time of transplant has a negligible effect on renal allograft function over the 15-year study period posttransplant.