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Finnish study: Risk of death from infection after kidney transplant has dropped by half
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The risk of death from infection after kidney transplantation has dropped by half since the 1990s in a cohort of Finnish patients, according to an analysis that will appear in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Common bacterial infections are the most common cause of infection-related death among transplant recipients. This is likely due to patients’ need for immunosuppressive medications to prevent rejection, according to a press release from the American Society of Nephrology. No recent data exists related to the infectious causes of death after kidney transplantation.
A team led by Ilkka Helanterä, MD, PhD, of Helsinki University Hospital, and Susanna Kinnunen, MD, of Kuopio University Hospital, examined data on all adult recipients of a first kidney transplantation between 1990 and 2012 in Finland. The aim of the analysis was to provide an estimate of infection-related morality among kidney transplant recipients in a modern developed country.
Infectious causes of death were analyzed, and the mortality rates for infections were compared between 2 eras (1990 to 1999 and 2000 to 2012) for 3,249 adult recipients of a first kidney transplantation. Researchers found 953 patients died during follow-up, with 204 infection-related deaths. The mortality rate due to infection was lower in the more recent era. Recipient age, higher plasma creatinine concentration at the end of the first post-transplant year, diabetes as a cause of kidney failure, longer pre-transplant dialysis duration, acute rejection, low albumin level and earlier era of transplantation were associated with higher risks of infectious death, according to the release.
“Our study shows that the risk of infectious mortality in patients with a kidney transplant is much lower than previously thought, and that the risk has dropped by half in the 2000s in our cohort despite transplanting older and sicker patients and using more powerful immunosuppression,” Helanterä said in the release. “In addition, surprisingly low number of infectious deaths were recorded during the first year after transplantation, and most of the infectious deaths occurred late, several years after transplantation.”
Reference:
www.asn.org
Disclosure s : The authors reported no relevant financial disclosures.