Comparison of Tacrolimus Versus Cyclosporin on Cardiovascular Risk in Renal Allograft Recipient

Seo, Young Min; Koo, Ja Hyun; Kim, Hyoung Tae; Cho, Won Hyun; Joo, Shin Heun

Abstract

PURPOSE
Hyperlipidemia and diabetes mellitus are common metabolic disorders associated with transplantation and also are risk factors of cardiovascular disease which is leading cause of patient death in kidney transplant recipients. We compared blood lipid and glucose levels of patients receiving tacrolimus (Tac) with those of patients receiving cyclosporine (CyA).
METHODS
Patients were grouped as Tac (n=124) or CyA (n=77). Minimal follow up duration was 18 months. Both groups have no difference in age, sex, HLA match, numbers of transplantation and proportion of the patients with pretransplant hypercholesterolemia (>220 mg/dL) or diabetes. Prevalence of hypercholesterolemia and diabetes in Tac and CyA groups were compared at posttransplant 1, 3, 6, and 12 months.
RESULTS
Prevalence of diabetes in CyA versus Tac group were 18.9 vs. 13.8% (P=0.348), 8.6% vs. 18.8% (P=0.060), 5.9% vs. 18.6% (P=0.016), and 10.4% vs. 21.1% (P=0.067) at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after transplantation respectively. Prevalence of hypercholesterolemia in CyA versus Tac group were 52.5% vs. 16.9% (P=0.000), 37.7% vs. 8.3% (P=0.000), 30.3% vs. 7.4% (P= 0.000) and 22.6% vs. 8.3% (P=0.001) at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after transplantation.
CONCLUSION
CyA group was more prone to develop hypercholesterolemia than Tac group, whereas incidence of diabetes in Tac group was not different from CyA group. In terms of cardiovascular risk, there was no significant difference between CyA treated group and Tac treated group in renal allograft recipients.