Hypertension and age-related decrease of arterial distensibility in renal transplant recipients

Arterial compliance has been shown to be impaired in renal transplant recip ients, the responsible mechanism is still not fully understood. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of hypertension on elastic vess el wall properties in these patients. In 24 normotensive and 24 treated hyp ertensive patients the distensibility of the common carotid artery was dete rmined 6 - 12 weeks and 2 years after renal transplantation using a multiga te pulsed Doppler system. Blood pressure was stable in both groups during t his period (127 +/- 3/80 +/- 2 mmHg at entry and 133 +/- 3/82 +/- 2 mmHg af ter 2 years in the normotensive group, 146 +/- 4/90 +/- 3 mmHg and 145 +/- 3/87 +/- 2 mmHg in the hypertensive group, p < 0.01 between groups). Disten sibility coefficient (DC) decreased significantly after 2 years in the hype rtensive patients (from DC 18.3 +/- 1.3 10(-3)/kPa at entry to 15.1 +/- 1.2 10(-3)/kPa after 2 years, p < 0.05) whereas there was no significant chang e iq the normotensive group (DC 19.0 +/- 1.4 10(-3)/kPa vs. 17.8 +/- 1.3 10 (-3)/kPa, n.s). Moreover, we found a significant correlation between change of distensibility coefficient and mean arterial pressure (n = 48, r = 0.42 , p < 0.01). The results of this longitudinal study show that decrease of a rterial distensibility is more pronounced in hypertensive patients after re nal transplantation compared to normotensive patients despite effective ant ihypertensive treatment.