Study: Kidneys from donors with AKI do not negatively impact eGFR in transplant recipients

BOSTON — For deceased donor transplants, AKI in the donor did not have any negative impact on eGFR in the recipient at 1 year, according to a poster presented at the American Transplant Congress.

“In a separate publication, we showed that acute kidney injury in the donor does not have a negative impact on graft survival,” Raymond L. Heilman, MD, transplant nephrologist at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, told Healio/Nephrology. “In this analysis, we were looking at the impact on eGFR and observed no negative impact with increasing levels of AKI.”

Researchers considered all deceased donor kidney transplants conducted at the Mayo Clinic from 2008 to 2018 (1,365 kidneys), classifying the severity of AKI in all donors using the Acute Kidney Injury Network (AKIN) criteria with zero being “no AKI” and three being “severe AKI.” Patients were further stratified into three groups based on the range of the kidney donor profile index (KDPI) of the donor. The primary outcome of the study was the influence of donor AKIN score on eGFR 1 year after transplant.

Researchers found that while KDPI influenced eGFR in all patients, it was not adversely affected by higher AKI level.

“We hope that these findings will help decrease the discard rate for AKI donors,” Heilman said. “Right now, data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients suggest that half the kidneys with severe AKI are discarded, and we think those are good kidneys that should be used.” – by Melissa J. Webb

Reference:

Heilman R, et al. Abstract B129. Presented at: American Transplant Congress. June 1-5, 2019; Boston.

Disclosure: Heilman reports no relevant financial disclosures.