Albuminuria prediction of kidney function outcome in kidney transplant recipients

To investigate the association of albuminuria and kidney function outcome in kidney transplant recipients, we studied 161 kidney transplant recipients; 95 (59%) of them were males and the mean age of the patients was 46 ± 13 years (range 18-70 years). All the patients received allografts from living related kidney donors. The mean body mass index of the patients was 25 ± 4 kg/m 2 . Forty (25%) patients were diabetic and 72 (45%) patients were hypertensive. All the patients had glomerular filtration rate (iGFR) determination by ( 99m Tc-DTPA) clearance and albumiuria was assessed using the first voided morning urine samples. According to the results of albuminuria, the patients were subdivided into three groups: One group of 90 (56%) patients with normoalbuminuria (<30 mg albumin/g. creatinine), a second group of 52 (32%) patients with microalbuminuria (30-300 mg albumin/g. creatinine) and a third group of 19 (12%) patients with macroalbuminuria (>300 mg/g. creatinine). There was a significant increase in the time post transplantation in the patients with macroalbumiuria in comparison with microalbuminuria and normoalbuminuria (90 ± 28, 60 ± 22 and 18 ± 6 months, respectively), P <0.05. There was a significant decrease of iGFR in the macroalbumiuria group as compared with the microalbumiuria and normoalbuminuria groups (57 ± 24, 74 ± 20 and 74 ± 28 mL/min/1.73 m 2 , respectively), P <0.05. We conclude that there was an association between albuminuria and the status of the renal function in our transplant population, which may reflect renal injury due to proteinuria. Prospective studies are warranted to evaluate the effect of albuminuria on the prognosis of the kidney allografts.