Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney Transplant Outcomes Stratified by Autoantibodies Status and Pretransplant Fasting...

Pancreatic beta cell function and islet autoantibodies classically distinguish types of diabetes (type 1 diabetes mellitus [DM] or type 2 DM). Here, we sought to evaluate simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplant outcomes stratified by the presence or absence of beta cell function and autoantibodies.

SPK recipients were eligible if pretransplant autoantibodies were measured against insulin, islet cell, or glutamic acid decarboxylase 65-kD isoform. Recipients were categorized as A⁺ or A^- based on the detection of ≥1 autoantibodies. Recipients were similarly categorized on the basis of detectable pretransplant fasting C-peptide of ≥2 ng/mL (β⁺) or <2 ng/mL (β^-). Thus, recipients were categorized into 4 groups: A⁺β^-, A^-β^-, A^-β⁺, and A⁺β⁺. Outcomes of interest were overall pancreas graft failure (non-death-censored), death-censored pancreas, or kidney graft failure (death-censored pancreas graft failure [DCGF]; kidney DCGF), composite outcomes with any of the 3 outcomes as pancreas DCGF, use of an antidiabetic agent, or hemoglobin A1c >6.5.

One hundred eighty-three SPK recipients were included: A⁺β^- (n = 72), A^-β^- (n = 42), A^-β⁺ (n = 49), and A⁺β⁺ (n = 20). We did not detect a statistical difference in non-death-censored pancreas graft failure for A⁺β^- recipients compared with other groups: A^-β^- (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 0.44; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.14-1.42), A^-β⁺ (aHR: 1.02; 95% CI, 0.37-2.85), and A⁺β⁺ (aHR: 0.67; 95% CI, 0.13-3.33) in adjusted analyses. Similar outcomes were observed for other outcomes.

In SPK recipients, outcomes were similar among recipients with classic features of type 1 DM and various other types of DM.