Conversion Effect from Prednisone to Deflazacort in Diabetic Kidney Transplants

Kim, Myoung Soo; Kim, Yu Seun; Lim, Seung Kil; Kim, Soon Il; Lee, Hae Kyung; Park, Ki Il

Abstract

The blood sugar control has been a significant problem after transplantation. Cyclosporine is partly responsible for post-transplantation diabetes mellitus (PTDM), but steroid has been well known to have diabetogenic effect and mainly responsible for glucose intolerance after transplantation. Deflazacort, a new steroid, has been introduced as a substitute of conventional steroid to prevent glucose intolerance after transplantation. We performed prospective study of deflazacort conversion from conventional steroid in kidney transplant patients with pre-transplantation diabetes mellitus(pre-Tx DM) or PTDM. A total of 82 kidney transplant patients was included for this study. Forty two patients were converted to deflazacort as a conversion group and 40 patients were remained on conventional steroid as a control group. In conversion group, the patients were converted from steroid to deflazacort with ratio of 5:6 in dosage. Nine patients developed severe anorexia with nausea/vomiting and three patients among them went back on steroid within 3 months after conversion(conversion failure 7.1%). After minimal 6 months of follow-up, there was neither episodes of graft dysfunction nor rejection. There was a significant improvement of glucose control in conversion group. In 12 patients(30.8%), more than 50% dose reduction of insulin or oral hypoglycemics requirement was possible. In control group, however, only 2 patients showed greater than 50% of insulin or oral hypoglycemics dose reduction. We could find that deflazacort conversion had a significant impact on blood sugar control in PTDM patients(11/26) but not in pre-Tx DM patients(1/13). In conclusion, conversion to deflazacort in PTDM patients with stable graft function was safe and blood sugar control was readily possible without an increment of risks of rejection and infection. We propose to use deflazacort as a substitute for prednisone in PTDM patients with stable graft function.