Prevalence of hypertension in a renal transplant population on alternate-day steroid therapy

A study of the prevalence of hypertension in a group of renal transplant patients on alternate-day maintenance steroid therapy was conducted. Twenty-four percent of the transplant clinic population was hypertensive. The factors that were associated with a lower prevalence of hypertension were good graft function, bilateral nephrectomy of the patients' own diseased kidneys (although the majority of our patients without bilateral nephrectomy are normotensive), and use of a living related donor. We conclude that the prevalance of hypertension in transplant patients on alternate-day steroid therapy is low. In the presence of all these favorable factors, only 6% of allograft recipients were hypertensive.