Fluvastatin in the prevention of renal transplant vasculopathy: results of a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Statins prevent the progression of transplant vasculopathy in heart transplants, but its beneficial effect on the transplanted kidney is controversial.

Methods: The aim is to evaluate the utility of fluvastatin 80 mg/day to reduce the progression of 6-month renal transplant vasculopathy in a multicenter, prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled trial stratified according to donor age. All patients received cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil, and prednisone. The progression of transplant vasculopathy was evaluated in paired donor and 6-month protocol biopsies. The primary efficacy variable was the progression of mean arterial intimal volume fraction (deltaVvintima/artery) evaluated with histomorphometry. The minimum sample size to detect a 50% reduction in the progression of deltaVvintima/artery was 62 patients per group. The secondary efficacy variable included the incidence of transplant vasculopathy evaluated according to Banff criteria.

Results: A total of 89 patients were included, 74 completed the 6-month study and 57 have paired biopsies with sufficient tissue for histological evaluation. The deltaVvintima/artery was not different between treatment and placebo groups (6.9+/-8.2% vs. 6.9+/-7.4%, P=ns), whereas the incidence of transplant vasculopathy was lower in the fluvastatin group (7% vs. 33%; P=0.02). Because there was a discrepancy between the primary and secondary efficacy variables, post hoc analysis was performed to evaluate the reproducibility of both variables in a subset of 50 biopsies. The reproducibility of transplant vasculopathy was higher than the reproducibility of Vvintima/artery (kappa 0.86 vs. 0.33).

Conclusions: In summary, there were no differences in deltaVvintima/artery between groups, but fluvastatin treatment was associated with a reduced incidence of transplant vasculopathy.