Increased prevalence of atherosclerotic wall changes in patients with hyperlipidaemia after renal transplantation

The initial aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of influencing atherosclerosis in hyperlipidaemic renal transplant patients by lowering blood lipids with gemfibrozil treatment.

Although this double-blind, randomized trial was stopped after 6 months owing to the suspicion of drug interference, we report here on the results of baseline ultrasonographic examinations.

The outpatient clinic at the Department of Transplantation Surgery, Huddinge University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden.

The carotid arteries were examined in 16 out of the 19 kidney transplant patients included in the study using an ultrasonographic duplex scanner.

Plaque occurrence and the common carotid intima-media thickness of the renal transplant recipients were compared to the same parameters in a normotensive control group of approximately the same age from a previous study.

An increased prevalence of plaque (75% of the patients having plaque on one or both sides) was seen in the hyperlipidaemic renal transplant patients in comparison with the control group (16%; P < 0.001). The common carotid intima-media complex was thicker (P < 0.05), and the lumen diameter and the calculated cross-sectional intima-media area were greater (P < 0.01-0.001) in the transplant recipients.

Markedly increased atherosclerotic wall changes are seen in the carotid arteries of patients with hyperlipidaemia after renal transplantation.