Hypertension is associated with hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease andchronic graft failure in kidney transplant recipients

Background: Hypertension is a common concomitant condition in renal transpl ant recipients. There is accumulating evidence that this disorder is an imp ortant risk factor for chronic renal graft failure and other cardiovascular complications in these patients. Subjects and methods: The current retrosp ective study in 330 patients treated with cyclosporin or azathioprin covere d 5 years and aimed to further characterize the interrelation between hyper tension and renal graft failure. Furthermore. the association of hypertensi on with hyperlipidemia and the prevalence of coronary heart disease was eva luated. Results: Altogether, before transplantation 182 patients were normo tensive (no antihypertensive medication except diuretics) and 105 were hype rtensive (blood pressure > 160/95 mmHg or patients requiring antihypertensi ve medication); for the remaining 43 patients no data were available. After transplantation the prevalence of hypertension in the cyclosporin group wa s 71, 76 and 70% after 1, 3 and 5 years, respectively, The respective numbe rs for the azathioprin group were 60, 59 and 58%. Hypertension was associat ed with graft dysfunction both in cyclosporin- and azathioprin-treated pati ents, Hyperlipidemia (cholesterol, triglycerides) was more severe in hypert ensive than in normotensive patients. The prevalence for hypertension was h igher in patients with coronary artery disease than in patients without the disease, Conclusion: The results further support the view that hypertensio n may be a risk factor for the development of chronic renal graft failure a nd coronary artery disease in this population. Furthermore, the association of hypertension with hyperlipidemia hints to an unfavorable accumulation o f renal and cardiovascular risk factors in a large number of renal allograf t recipients.